The Roads

The roads in Boston are really bad. I would recommend not driving at all if you have to live here. Driving in the city is bad but it's just as bad outside the city.

First of all there is no street signage. I'm not even kidding, I have driven several miles and I can't find one fucking street sign. I have no idea what street I'm on. I approach a major intersection and again, not one street sign! Don't even think about seeing a street sign on a side street.

Every once in a while you will see a sign directing you to a hospital or highway or some other major attraction. The sign ahead says hospital next right. OK, so you take that right and drive several miles and nothing. Come to find I was supposed to take another left and there wasn't another sign! What's the point of even posting the first sign if you are not going to direct me to where I'm going? This happens all the time. One of my favorites is one night my wife and I were traveling up Route 1 when we saw a sign that said McDonald's next exit. We were starving so we got off the exit and drove about 5 miles down this road and nothing. A few months later I was fucking determined to find this McDonald's and it ended up being almost 10 miles off the highway. It wasn't a straight shot either. The only reason I found it was blind luck.

The roads all around Boston make no sense. Nothing is on a grid. Street names change at will. If you don't know where you are already going you are pretty much screwed. Major highways and roads will combine into other major roads. You could be on I-95, but you are also on Route 128, and/or Route 1 and so-on.

Center lanes  don't exist around Boston. I understand there isn't a lot of room to expand roads but this just makes traffic worse. Most roads aren't clearly marked. Most of the time you are lucky if you can see the paint that divides the road. A lot of times you'll be driving down a road when out of the blue you find yourself in a left-hand turn only lane. Now you have to get over to the right. Good luck trying to merge! You finally merge to the right and all of a sudden you are in a right hand turn lane! It's fucking insane!

Potholes are everywhere. I'm talking about potholes so big that your car will get fucked up. You can't avoid them. I have never seen roads as tore up as Boston roads. Don't bother even owning a nice car here. Between the potholes and all the rocks that fly up from the roads your car is going to get trashed.