City Shock

I’m struggling to grok Boston.  There are several key things to living here that are eluding me.  First of all, I can’t figure out the rules of being a pedestrian.  In Vancouver, unless I’m jaywalking, it’s quite simple: cross the street when there is a little white man on the traffic light, or stay on the sidewalk if there’s a big red hand.  In really high tech areas, sometimes the walk signal will chirp at you, indicating the light has turned and it is safe to cross. 

In Boston, I think there are some hidden rules.  At busy intersections cars speed through what I would swear was a red light, judging by what the other traffic light on the road are doing.  I’m still convinced those drivers were breaking the law as I know it, except that I also saw a police car do this.  Was he chasing all the other cars?  Probably not.  It’s more plausible to assume that there are actually different traffic laws here, which makes it treacherous for anyone as clued out as me. 

On less busy streets people tend to cross willy-nilly, totally ignoring the walk, or don’t walk symbols.  My favourite instance of this is at an intersection on the way to the subway (or the T, as locals call it).  It’s quite busy, but people cross both streets in the intersection at the same time, thus totally stopping traffic. 

However, I always wait for the symbols to tell me its safe.  This usually works, but yesterday while I was waiting for a walk symbol (at that same intersection), the car waiting to make a right turn started honking at me, telling me to cross the street.  What was up with that?  They had the right-of-way!  Other right-turners are overly aggressive, especially the ones at the intersection of Mass Ave and Boylston St, the intersection right in front of Berklee’s main building.  These streets are always filled with an international crowd of musicians who all stampede across the streets like a giant group of lemmings.  The aggressive drivers turn right into the midst of this stream.  My conclusion is that there must be different traffic laws here. 

Strangely though, when the locals aren’t in their cars, they are very friendly.  I’ve had more conversations with strangers in the last couple days than I have, since, like, ever.  Yesterday, a businessman approached one of my roommates and told her that her backpack was open and that she should check to see if anything had fallen out.  Today I saw a woman telling another lady that her skirt was caught in her bag and exposing a little more leg than was intended.  I’ve never seen anyone be this spontaneously nice in Vancouver… although that might be because I don’t pay that much attention to people at home.