‘So Many Pedestrians, So Little Time’ : Genteel Bostonians Park Their Manners When Behind the Wheel

Genteel Boston’s reputation for uncivilized driving--and parking--makes it easy prey for traffic jokes.

- Beantown doesn’t have pedestrians; it has moving targets. In fact, the city may have inspired the bumper sticker: “So many pedestrians, so little time.”

- It has more color-blind drivers than anyplace else in the world. How else can one explain the constant confusion between red and green lights?

- Metered parking spaces are so rare that, when people find one, they nominate it for museum status.

- Never make eye contact with a competing driver as you race for an expressway on-ramp or a parking space. You pretend he’s not there rather than surrender any advantage.

Even Bill Cosby poked fun at the demolition-derby mentality of Boston commuters in a monologue during a local comedy appearance.

But city officials and business leaders say cavalier drivers are not funny anymore. Nor are the inconsiderates who double- and triple-park their cars on crowded streets and jaywalk boldly where others fear to tread.

The city and businesses have teamed up on a $1-million ad, called “Keep Boston Moving,” to encourage safe driving and legal parking.

The Vault, a consortium of business leaders, put up $125,000 and the city is trying to raise an additional $825,000 in private funds to finance the long-term ad campaign. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority donated $1-million worth of free ad space in stations and on buses and subway cars.

It is not a matter of civility as much as economics. Boston risks losing business because so many people are put off by clogged traffic in and around the city and by having to fight for parking spaces.

Providence, R. I., 50 miles to the south, has been taking advantage of the situation. Its expressway billboards in Boston, pitched to frazzled motorists, have generated more than 200 relocation or expansion business leads.

“The business community believes we will choke on our own success if we don’t do something about traffic flow. We continue to conduct commerce in the city as if it was still 1960, even though the town has gone through a helluva lot of development since then,” said Joseph J. Burnieika Jr., president of Arnold & Co., which is coordinating the ad campaign.

In Boston, rush hour is a misnomer. Tunnels, expressways and major intersections are gridlocked for three hours each morning and evening.

Burnieika has clients who refuse to come to his Park Square office because they can’t get there fast--or find a place to park. So he volunteered to handle the ad campaign for free.

The new campaign is using radio and TV advertising, mass transit ad space and billboards to make drivers and pedestrians more aware of the need for more manageable traffic. The city is matching it with other tactics, including intense ticketing and assigning 50 police cadets to traffic hot spots.

One television ad shows an ambulance with a stricken woman aboard that is unable to maneuver through traffic because of double-parked cars or gridlocked intersections caused by cars that tried to beat the yellow light. “You could be killing more than time for other commuters,” the announcer says.

Other ads seek strict use of pedestrian crosswalks and more reliance on mass transit. Billboards along the prime expressways soon will urge van- and car-pooling with the messages: “Back-seat drivers needed” and “Prevent hardening of the arteries.”

Major employers are asked to encourage employees to use mass transit by giving them subsidies and adopting flexible schedules that avoid peak commuter hours. New employers locating in Boston are required to adopt those techniques.

Next fall, Burnieika, a former teacher, hopes to move the campaign into public schools. He wants to use civics, geography, math and science to teach youngsters about traffic’s impact on the economy. Changing generations of poor habits has to start with another generation, he said.

City Transportation Commissioner Richard Dimino said that rush-hour parking restrictions on major streets and more ticketing are showing results.

“We want to raise the consciousness of the motorists coming into the city, to get them to understand that we’re serious,” Dimino said. “People will change their habits because they don’t want to be towed. It is a strong deterrent.”

Boston police officer Joseph McNulty, who works traffic duty, has seen it all. “There are certain areas of the country where drivers seem to be a little more reckless. Boston is one of them. If you try to stop traffic, it’s almost like you’re putting that driver out a bit so somebody else can get through. Some take it as a personal affront,” he said.

“If I’m standing in an intersection, putting up my hand in a ‘stop’ motion just doesn’t work anymore. There was a time many, many years ago when people would hit their brakes. Now, you have to make eye contact with the driver to make sure he or she is aware you are going to stop them. Then you have to physically start moving yourself in front of that vehicle.”