Learning how to drive in Massachusetts has prepared me quite well for driving in other places. Driving in NYC was a piece of cake, and London was only slightly more difficult because of the whole driving-on-the-left thing.
Still, while I pride myself on my keen driving skills, I ain’t stupid. A friend told me a story last week of insanity – I don’t know if you all are familiar with the “BU Beach,” which is the stretch of BU land that overlooks Sturrow Drive. Anyway, he was sitting on the BU Beach one fine day recently – I believe it was before a Red Sox game as Sturrow was mightily backed up. Some intelligent young man in a Jeep decided that waiting in this line of cars to get off was insufferable, so he attempted to drive up the BU Beach and onto the street that runs along the grass. However, instead of being a slow incline, the BU Beach is more like a hill, or grassy knoll, if you will. There’s no way a car could drive all the way up on such a steep incline. He managed to make it almost all the way up. Lucky for a girl who was lying down and catching some rays, he did not. The Jeep’s front wheels landed about 1 foot away from her head, and he got stuck, unable to move up or down.
THEN, as if almost killing someone wasn’t bad enough, the guy decided that attempting to back up would be the best thing to do. Yes, backing up. Into the traffic on Sturrow. Yeah, great idea. Luckily, since he was so stuck, he wasn’t going anywhere, and my friend and others convinced him that pushing the Jeep up the grassy knoll was probably the best idea, while others were madly calling 911 on their cell phones. I’m not sure if he got arrested or ticketed or what, as my friend decided that he didn’t want to hang out on the BU Beach anymore and left.
I had been hanging out on that very patch of land about a month ago with my boyfriend and wondered out loud if a car could make it up. Guess that answers my question. I know getting into the city on game day is a pain in the ass, but that’s why you should take the T!