Or, Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Given the amount of snow Boston has received in the past week, more predicted snowfall, and my lifetime of New England living—including seven winters in a major metropolitan area—here’s some sound advice, primarily for drivers and pedestrians in Boston, for surviving the rest of the winter.

Property owners:

• Shovel your sidewalks. It’s the law. There is no excuse. You will be fined if you don’t and can be sued if your negligence results in injury.

Drivers:
I had the kind of dad who made sure that the very first time any of his children was behind the wheel of the car, it was icy and winter; he took us out to the abandoned multi-acre parking lot of a local office park, on the theory that if we learned to drive in the worst possible conditions, we would become excellent drivers. He was right. I got excellent advice from him, and I’m full of excellent advice for you.

• Why do we all turn into 15-year old boys with learner’s permits at the lightest snowfall? Seriously, YIELD to pedestrians in crosswalks, especially on sidestreets with no traffic lights. Allow yourself a solid 20-40 feet of stopping distance. One of the top three highest lawsuits settled in MA in 2007 was awarded to a pedestrian struck in a crosswalk. Don’t be that driver. Start stopping on yellow; it’s icy and both driving and walking are dangerous. Additionally, you’re in a bubble of warmth. Anyone who is on foot is rushing to someplace warm.
• Straddling a crosswalk—or the sidewalk as you exit a driveway or parking lot—will not get you to your destination any quicker, and forces pedestrians to walk into moving traffic. Not nice.
• If you are stuck in ice or compacted snow and can’t get into motion, here’s a tip from my dad: keep a shovel and a bucket of either sand or salt in your trunk. Sprinkle around your tires for traction. The low-tech high-success alternative is just use what you have at hand: the rubber floormats underfoot. They are removable. It doesn’t matter if you use the ones from the front seat or backseat. This is an excellent trick for escaping plowed-over parallel parking spaces. Determine whether your car is front- or rear-wheel drive; if you’ve been spinning your wheels without moving, it’s whichever tires have dug themselves down into the snow. Depending upon whether you are attempting to pull forward or back out of your spot, jam the floormats under your powered wheels in the direction you’re attempting to go. Then you should be able to drive over the mats. You may need to repeat this a few times until you’re clear, jumping up to move the mats each time you’ve gone over them. Don’t forget and leave them behind, though!
• If you are driving in a rural or residential area where the sidewalks may not be cleared, keep an eye out for pedestrians walking in the road!

Pedestrians:
I’ve lived in the Boston area since the summer of 2000 without a car; about half of this time has been in relatively built-up commercial/residential areas (on Mass Ave in Arlington and Cambridge), and the other half has been in outlying communities (Somerville and Watertown). I spent most of my childhood (age 6 to 18) in a very rural New Hampshire town without sidewalks or streetlights.

• Don’t expect drivers to stop or yield to you. Even if you have the right-of-way in a crosswalk, make sure you can safely cross. The law says that if a car is more than 10 feet from a crosswalk that you are in, they have to stop. In the winter, they might not be able or willing to.
• Wear light/dark outerwear combinations for high visibility against both snow and early darkness—e.g., if you have a black coat, wear a pale scarf; if your coat is light, wear a dark hat or gloves.
• Here’s a word of caution from my mom on walking without benefit of sidewalks: “Don’t trust cars to see you! Make sure that you can see them first.” If the sidewalk is impassable and you must walk in the street, get over to the far LEFT shoulder of the road, even if it means unnecessarily crossing the street. This sounds counterintuitive, but you do not want to be looking down at where you are putting your feet and also checking over your shoulder every few seconds for cars coming up behind you. By walking in the far left lane and AGAINST oncoming traffic, you can easily spot any cars (or SNOWPLOWS!!) that put you in danger, and duck into driveways or between parked cars (or even climb up onto snowbanks if necessary) to get out of their way with plenty of time.
• Wear sensible shoes.

What other advice would you offer?