Dying In Front Of A Cemetery

When people from out-of-state came to visit me in Belmont, Massachusetts, I would take them on a driving tour of Boston. 

On the way into Boston, I would drive by Mt. Auburn Cemetery, which dates from 1831.  It was America’s first garden cemetery.  Winslow Homer, Mary Baker Eddy, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and other Boston luminaries are buried there.

I took a friend from New York on my driving tour, and when we went past Mt. Auburn Cemetery, he said, “I am going to die!”  I took a friend from California on the tour, and driving by Mt. Auburn Cemetery, she exclaimed “Oh, my God, I am going to die!!”  Friends from Minnesota said, “Aaaugh, we are going to die in front of a cemetery!!!”

My friends thought they were going to die because back in New York and California and Minnesota all major intersections have traffic lights or stop signs. 

Here, at this intersection in front of Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Route 16 came in from the west, merging with Belmont Avenue coming from the northwest while Holworthy Avenue came straight down from the north, and Mount Auburn Street fed into the intersection from the east.  All of this, and not a single traffic light or stop sign.

I knew how to navigate.  I slowed down and checked if a car was trying to merge with me on my left while I checked to see if a car was heading directly toward me from the right. At the same time, I glanced ahead to determine if the cars coming towards me were going to pass me on my left or if they were going to cut in front of me to pass me  on my right.

Navigating became second nature to me.  If I was not in the clear, I stopped.  If I was in the clear, I continued.  My out-of-state friends considered this life-threatening.  I considered it a normal Boston traffic situation.

Then the Highway Department made changes.  They installed traffic lights; they created a little triangular traffic island, and Holworthy became a one-way street.

I was not pleased with the new arrangements.  Drivers stopped paying attention to traffic and started paying attention to traffic lights instead.  Drivers let their guard down.

Ironically, when the intersection was dangerous, people drove safer.

Back when there were no traffic lights and my out-of-state friends thought they were going to die, I would calmly drive through the intersection while telling my friends that they couldn’t pick a nicer cemetery to die in front of.

- - - - - - - - -

VIDEO:  
http://boingboing.net/2008/06/10/busy-hanoi-intersect.html
Time-lapse photography shows that an intersection without traffic lights can be safe.  Here is downtown Hanoi – cars, pedestrians, taxis, rickshaws, bicycles, vans, and even a motorcyclist who sits in the middle of the intersection, waiting for his passenger to run out to him and jump on the back of his motorcycle. (2 minutes)

- . - .- . - . - . 

NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com