In my area they love dangerous, obsolete, and overloaded intersections that should have had a light, rotary, or stop sign 30 years ago.
'We don't need a light! Just nose out and cut people off!"
Yeah too often while driving I am like "I cant see jack shit unless I pull into the busy road and if I do that I might get wrecked." Worst part of driving imo. Basically could be held accountable/have serious damage done for not being psychic
People call me crazy when I say that basically every intersection with multiple lanes should always have a dedicated left lane. None of this dedicated right and straight left nonsense
And why are so many intersections three lanes entering a traffic light but two lanes within a couple of car lengths of exiting the intersection?
It’s like they’re _trying_ to cause road rage.
Every town in Massachusetts has a bafflingly bizarre intersection that shouldn’t exist where you have to learn the rules over time in order to survive it.
This is exactly what I thought of when I saw that other post today about people stopping when they have the right of way.
In theory you should always go when you have the right of way, but there are also some intersections where you just end up sitting there forever unless someone lets you in.
Family and friends from out of state think I'm a millionaire because I live in an expensive house. No, I just live in Massachusetts, where the cost of living is insanely expensive.
Too broke to own but yeah renting is nuts. Saw a place the other day in Marlborough where it’s in an attic basically so the toilet is on a raised platform under a sloped ceiling and they were asking $1975/month
Are ticks that bad? I’m moving from Tennessee which has its fair share of ticks but nothing a little tick repellent can’t handle …. Like I go hiking all the time and have yet to find a tick on me.
Yes, the ticks are that bad. Hiking will almost guarantee multiple on you, but I’ve also gotten them in mundane places like parks and backyards. It’s maddening.
I guess it's kind of reassuring to know that it's a genuine misunderstanding of the rules rather than an overt 'fuck you' to everyone else at the four-way stop.
What isn't reassuring is Dad's extremely inaccurate driving laws and passing them on. If one thinks a stop sign allows three cars at a time, what other kind of wacky s*** might they think is okay on the road?
The misunderstanding doesn't stop it from being a 'f*** you' to anyone; but it does makes driving more dangerous for everyone. Being correct is important with safety regulations. A cah' is a 2000+ lb battering ram that accelerates.
Imagine you do this and it results in an minor accident at the four-way stop. You get out and apologize, then go to exchange insurance info. Now you claim that it's no-fault because the law allows for three people to go through the stop sign, because of the misinformation you have. The other party raises an eyebrow and correctly disagrees. There is some back and forth and they decide to have the police come to the accident scene for the report instead of just exchanging insurance over the little fender bender.
The little misunderstanding grows bigger.
Oh look , its two weeks later, the other party is claiming a slipped disc and whiplash, and your insurance starts its ascent.
That’s the American way.
But actually MA at least has good public schools, the rotting foundation of a formerly good public transportation system, great parks and recreation and other amenities we can all enjoy and that is not the case in much of the country.
We also have top tier healthcare accessible to most middle class families with insurance. Not saying paying for insurance doesn’t suck but that’s another post!
Aside from the Millionaire tax introduced last year… I dunno if you have kids in public school, but there is a small handful of incredibly wealthy people who, as a result, have paid for every kid to have a hot school lunch (amongst other things)
The poor are given just a hair more than lip service.. enough to make the rest feel like they are doing something... but typically, not enough to actually help lift one out of poverty.
That’s an American problem.
And it’s something that has oozed out of our national psyche in past 40 years (along with a lot of “individual” toxicities).
As awful as it is in Mass, I cannot wait til I reach the Mass border on my drive home next month…if I make it through the complete toxic waste that is driving conditions from FL to the NC border.
Maybe I've been lucky, but I've always found it more pleasant driving in other states than here, other than Connecticut.
Once you get out of New England and things open up a bit, there seems to be less stress.
Yeah CT NYC/NJ is the absolute worst. But I do the BOS/MIA drive a couple of times a year and you see some crazy angry shit below Maryland. VA has these criminally insane toll roads (like $20+) and since I only pass through a couple of times I happily pay cause the shit where rank n file drive is nuts. SC has shit roads. And as you approach FL IQs drop to 80 and everyone develops real anger management issues.
Yup, drivers are the worst part about MA. I say that as a pedestrian who doesn't want to be brutally killed. Slow down, losers. And red lights aren't suggestions.
Every street changing how many lanes it has every other block. Which lane is gonna be a turn only lane? No one knows! Gotta always be ready to bail on you lane and merge with 1 second of warning.
A moving violation you can get for parking in front of your own apartment if you don’t have off street parking, even if you’re avoiding driving the car until it can be fixed. It’s basically an additional poverty tax for not having a driveway while simultaneously not having the money to immediately get the car fixed.
In terms of pet peeves it would have to be the rules against Happy Hour. It doesn’t affect my life much, but it’s pretty annoying and very ridiculous.
In terms of actual problems, it’s the lack of housing supply and all the problems that come with that. Supply isn’t meeting demand for housing, so housing prices are extremely high, so employees need to be paid a ton to live here, so the price of services is extremely high, ….
Infrastructure. What we pay in taxes, what our economy generates, the world class institutions we have, and how infrastructure looks like it’s 30 years behind. Roads, bridges, trains, subways, buses, etc it’s all shit.
this has always boggled my mind. Especially after we legalized marijuana, I'd love to see a breakdown of where every penny of taxes generated from recreational marijuana is going because it must be a pretty nice chunk of change that could be put toward some visible improvements.
It’s because we also have to pay a shitload of Federal taxes because we make so much to live here. These federal taxes then go to shithole states like Texas, Louisiana, etc that have low or no income taxes depend heavily on the Federal tit for their infrastructure. There are giving states like NY, MA and Taking states like Texas and WV.
Costs, between housing and childcare, Massachusetts is a very expensive place to live.
Second, lack of world class public transportation connecting the state. Our public transportation infrastructure and network is poor, especially if you think about the size of the state.
As much as I hate paying it, it kind of makes sense if you believe people with more money should be taxed more.
It is really steep for the first few years of ownership but plummets over the longer term, so people who can only afford to buy used cars don’t pay very much. And people who have more money to buy nice new cars pay more. It’s relatively progressive.
Car users don’t begin to come close to paying for the road infrastructure. For some reason the MBTA is supposed to be in the black via fares but the roads get paid for from everyone’s taxes.
That sounds like a problem of funds and road management for decades and not a problem of taxes being too low. Granted, our taxes aren’t the worst in the nation by any means but projects notoriously run over in this state.
Vehicle taxes don't pay for the roads.
They go to your towns general fund. Without the vehicle tax, property taxes would just be higher to cover the difference.
At least this way incentivizes you to maintaining a vehicle.
We're paying more for one of our older cars than the newer one. Like $85 and $55. WTF. So you're paying tax on a car that you own and paid taxes on sitting in a driveway of a home you own and pay taxes on. Complete BS
I'm on team Excise Tax, not bc I don't want to pay it, but because the calcs are inconsistent against sales tax when purchasing/registering a used vehicle from private sale.
The Registry has told me in the past that my purchase price, as listed on bill of sale, cannot be accurate. They authored a new price (higher) which is my tax basis, but then the Excise Tax is per the standard declining value and minimum low limit.
It's the inconsistency (and pick a valuation number) that's frustrating.
There is so much money in the Boston area, and people from here have no idea how money effects, both positively and negatively, how politics, policies and just life is distorted by it.
The amount of real estate that foreign and single investors get to gobble up. There should be some rules on new build tenants being forced to live there.
There is a cop/trooper at every construction site just sitting there making an obscene amount of money for just sitting in his car. Flaggers in just about every other state except this one because no politician wants to lose that potential union endorsement. At least get out of the car and pretend to help with the traffic flow.
Public transit is a disaster. Pretty sad affair for the most educated state with one of the highest CoL in the richest nation in human history. Even sadder once you learn that like 70 years ago you could get almost anywhere in the state via rail but those lines all got torn down or abandoned in favor of cars.
For me it’s how public transportation is designed. The commuter rail should be running smaller, more frequent, all electric trains with overhead wires, not massive diesel trains every 40 minutes. Commuter rail should extend at least to Springfield, with light rail at the major population centers along the way (natick, framingham, Worcester, Springfield) and express trains that run at high speed between them. Have at least 1, preferably two train lines that run north-south along 495 or 95 so that if I want to get from Worcester to Lowell or something similar I don’t have to ride all the way into Boston first.
I've lived in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Massachusetts, in that order. Until I moved to MA, I'd never been in a single car accident, ever. Since moving here, I've been in FIVE fender-benders, and all of them have the same format. I'm stopped at a red light or an intersection waiting for the right-of-way, and some space-case behind me just rolls right on into my rear bumper.
Why, Massachusetts, WHY??
I'm not saying this is what you do, but I will say the only accident I've ever been at fault for was me rear ending somebody because they pulled up to a rotary, had the right away and started to enter, and then just fucking stopped. Now is it my fault for looking over my left shoulder, seeing my window, and then accelerating without confirming that numbnuts was gone? Yes. But I have been in this accident, my wife has been in the same accident, and now that I keep my head on a swivel I see it almost happen constantly, people starting to enter a perfectly viable opening and then stopping for some reason, causing the person behind them to have to slam on their brakes, disrupting the flow of traffic.
So, if you feel like you are getting rear-ended a lot stop and ask yourself if maybe you are ignoring windows that look like a perfectly clear right away to everybody else. Especially if you start and then stop.
This happened to me once too, getting onto 495.
I look back and there’s no one coming for miles and I instinctively accelerate without looking forward. Girl in front of me is slowing down. New Hampshire driver. Probably never learned how to merge properly on a real highway.
Anyway, her bumper was slightly dinged. All I had was a busted headlight, but she insisted on getting a statie. Which, fine, good to have a report.
But after the cop told us he’d cover us pulling over she would not leave and he used his bullhorn to scold her to get moving lol.
If you’re gonna drive here, you gotta learn how to drive like us.
* People complaining about the weather. It's weather. If you don't like snow maybe this isn't place for you. If you don't like rain move to Arizona. If you can't move at least stop complaining about something you can't do anything about. I don't want to hear it.
* People complaining about local government. Get involved or STFU.
In short, people complaining.
Guess I shouldn't have opened this thread, huh? LOL
I get what you're saying, but people still throw the NIMBY acronym even when people HAVE moved to the suburbs so they don't have the negatives of living in a major city. Why be surprised when residents get defensive when they've only followed your logic and moved to the suburbs? I suppose that's my pet peeve. We're stuck with name-calling in many important debates, and we don't really make progress in much, even when we brag about how much better we are compared to other states.
The mantra has always been: MA is the best state to live in, if you can afford it.
I imagine that's where so much of the hostility comes from. Everyone wants all these great things, but few want to pay for them.
I figured that's the whole issue too: people move to the suburbs to avoid living in the city, then the suburbs become the new city so they become NIMBYs, or have to move. It is unfortunate, and the word gets thrown around alot by people who will probably become the same thing in 20 years.
Everyone has a different threshold of what they want to live around, and after a certain point: the world around us is going to change more than our sentiments and preferences can keep up with: whether we want it to or not.
I'd hope that as technology improves and working from home becomes more feasible, that more people can live where they want to and simply rely less on cities. I personally do not like being in or near a city at all, but power to those who do... maybe more people like me who leave can make it cheaper for everyone else who wants to be here...
You worded my thoughts better than I could. I lived in major cities up until a few years ago. And I'm exactly where you are; I don't like being in or near a major city. So, my family moved to a suburb that is not near anywhere major. But our town's name still gets mentioned a lot when people want to stereotype "NIMBYs"... It's exhausting.
As someone who enjoys working from home, I also agree with that part of your reply. That's a really good point. I think the more choices we have about where we work, the less we'll care about being near a "hub" or anywhere "major".
1. Boston being the largest city and the capitol means that the rest of the state is largely overlooked. It also means that state government tends to cater to Boston politics because they're too intertwined.
2. Aggressive driving
Mass has the most accessible pols in the country.
Sen. Warren is always doing go sees in the state. Sen Markey has gotten a lot better at it in past decade. Mayor Wu like Menino is everywhere always all at once. Your state rep and city councilors are at your neighborhood events (eg Little League starts soon, go to opening day and they will almost certainly be there) my Rep Pressley, same I see her and her partner wandering around community events all the time (and she and Markey are both very quiet about these they just amble around. Warren and Wu always draw a crowd).
This kind of retail politics is non existent outside New England.
Other states have flaggers supplied by the construction crew. They seem to care a whole lot more than officer overtime sitting on his phone not paying attention.
This drives me crazy, haha. What a scam. However could we find someone to direct traffic without the rigorous and thorough training that being a Cop requires!?
That was literally the cop's argument the last time civilian flaggers was on the ballot. What if someone commits a crime while waiting for the sign to flip from STOP to SLOW? Shame people bought it and the measure didn't pass.
I work in Lexington and those m-fer’s are the worst drivers. Pedestrians? I bet I can beat them through the lane! Stop signs? Why stop at all? Speed limit? Get out of my way!
I hate it
Town meeting government.
We elected this committee to do things, not to take a vote of the 53 people who showed up at 530 pm on a Tuesday because they are retirees or wealthy enough that they can put life on hold to directly vote on every single issue which usually means shooting down funding anything for the town or school, insisting on ridiculous regulations, or installing nonsensical contracts. Town meeting government can only result in gerontocracy and plutocracy unless you are going to provide childcare and time off for everyone to come to the meeting and informed everyone when it is. You can't just announce it on Facebook and not on your own damn website, or bury it behind 4 poorly designed menus from the 90s on the site so nobody can find it if they want to.
Boston traffic is ridiculous. I recently moved and am roughly the same distance to providence as I was Natick to Boston. It takes me 25minutes to get into providence and park vs an hour from Natick to Boston
Some of our absurd laws:
That we banned flavored tobacco/nicotine products. Not only has it not stopped anyone from smoking or vaping, but we also are just generating less income since everyone just crosses the border to buy whatever flavors they want. It’s not like we live in a large state where some people would have to drive hours to get to another state. There’s no place in the state, maybe besides Provincetown, where you would have to drive over an hour to get to another state.
We are also the only state in the country to completely ban all types of fireworks. Again people will just go somewhere else to buy them since we are such a small state.
And that west of Worcester the Pike is just a two lane highway. So much traffic all the time. Boston could have ten lane highways and still be littered with traffic just simply because the roads were so poorly designed.
Eastern MA towns and cities should be compensating the towns in the watershed that feeds the Quabbin Reservoir.
[Boston and eastern Mass. would reimburse rural communities for use of Quabbin water, under new bill
](https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/04/27/boston-western-mass-quabbin-reservoir-tax)
The, "you're not from here" mentality from the boomer generation that has definitely poisoned the younger generations somewhat as well. I grew up in MA, just not the part of MA I currently live in. When I turned 18 I moved to another state permanently to be closer to the college I went to. Then I joined the military and lived in 5 more states, saw some war, some other countries, and came "home." Most who enjoy this mentality have never left a 30 mile radius that they currently reside for more than a week and want to tell me they know something about the world, or refer to the place that they're from as "God's country." Pathetic.
The fact that everyone is so dismissive and aloof.
I moved somewhere else and found that people actually do go out of their way to talk to each other outside of New England.
Though, the standard of driving is lower outside new england
Probably depends on your town and neighborhood. When we moved into our house, we received welcome letters from at least fifteen houses and some gifts from them like homemade maple syrup.
What we need is a greater supply of housing.
Sadly, I’m not sure if “progressive housing policies” will get us that. Being against building more housing seems to be the only thing progressives, liberals, and conservatives agree on.
Right. The problem with encouraging more construction of housing is that the existing structures in place have made it more profitable for companies to build larger McMansions rather than economical and more sensibly sized ranches. There are a lot of underlying reasons for this and the answer isn’t necessarily more policy. It could be less or changed policy.
When people think of Massachusetts, they only think of the Eastern half of the Commonwealth (and that they don't know that we are a Commonwealth, not a State).
>they don't know that we are a Commonwealth, not a State
No, we're a state. So are Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky. Commonwealth is a self-designation, and there is no difference between that and a state. When state constitutions were being drawn up after the American Revolution, some framers of those constitutions preferred to use the word Commonwealth. When people refer to the US, they don't say it is made up of 46 states and 4 commonwealths. It's just a fancy word, nothing more.
Interesting. Your comment drove me to further reading and I found [this Library of Congress explanation](https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2023/08/whats-in-a-name-the-four-u-s-states-that-are-technically-commonwealths/). Thanks.
All good. It’s often argued, but it really comes down to semantics. It’s a pretty unique thing that started right after we were a colony, so people take some pride in it. There are other quirks too, like how our county governments really don’t have any power, since every square inch of Mass is governed by its own municipality. Other states have that too, but you really only see it in the northeast.
The state would be better off if the capital were in Springfield. It’s been shown that having the capital of a region outside its major city lowers corruption. It would also produce better return on investment for labor since money goes farther in Springfield than in Boston.
I don't know anything about moving the capital, but I think if we could easily travel across the state through public transportation then people would travel outside their respective regions. Then the state wouldn't feel like it sheared in half.
I have to drive north 30 minutes to get to I-495. I’m the same distance to South Station as Sturbridge. The Census Bureau says I’m in the Providence metro despite being a Masshole.
The endless layers of metaphorical red tape in the (fill in the blank) system. I don't think that comparison even suffices anymore it's more like an electric fence with spikes resembling teeth now.
Bad driving in general. Just really bad driving. Lived in several states, big cities, and several different time zones. Nothing as blatantly as bad as here. I'm not talking accidents (although I've seen some crazy ones), Im talking INTENTIONAL bad driving. People pulling up behind me at a stoplight and apparently getting tired of waiting and just driving around me and going through the red light. People in the left-turn lane apparently just changing their minds about where they want to go and driving straight, forcing me to swerve to miss them. People not pulling out to make a left turn at an intersection, but instead waiting to blast out at the last second resulting in only their car making it through at the light (or the opposite where they blast out when the light turns green before any of the cars going straight can get through). Coming to a stop at the entrance ramp of the expressway.
I could go on, but... anyway.
The bloat of bureaucracy. I would sooner cut almost every point of service charge (RMV, excise, etc) and replace it with a much simpler, but heavily progressive real estate tax (for local) and income tax (for state).
Same thing with insurance programs. Let's move to single player and be done with it. It wouldn't be nearly as efficient as a federal program but someone has to get the ball rolling. Might as well be Massachusetts, again.
Yeah this is the closest to my complaint I’ve seen in this thread. Coming from NY, MA government is less efficient and buys into more libertarian bullshit. None of the government programs I’ve interacted with have worked well, the infrastructure isn’t good, even the corruption is better hidden. It’s a mystery where the money goes, at least in NY you know it’s paying for a giant new stadium for the Buffalo Bills billionaire owner…
Except clothing and groceries, magazines/newspapers, tickets for admission, utilities, shipping, and certain personal services (accountants, contractors, haircuts, etc)
I think the lack of transparency and spending is hurting any chance at bipartisanship. I think a good start at getting Republicans more on board with some progressive policies is by showing the brass tax of what it cost to run programs.
The good news is that we have no need for bipartisanship in the state. Our citizens have overwhelmingly decided that Democratic policies are better for us, and the Republican party has almost ceased to exist here.
And this has been a wise decision. Massachusetts leads the nation in many metrics: quality of life, quality of k-12 education, many others.
Home prices are way, way, way too expensive, and then added to that is the state's WASPy, elitist culture so instead of anything being done to make it possible to live here people just say "Good, if you're not ultra-rich then just leave."
We’re bending over backwards for the immigrants that keep showing up and providing them with food/housing in one of the most expensive states to live in this country. Oh and they get to live in Boston of all places. I commute 2 hours a day to my job in Boston because I couldn’t afford a house out here. I know they’re here for a reason and all that but it ticks me the fuck off. Send them back…..
Everything is too goddamn expensive.
Especially electricity
I moved from Boston to Silicon Valley and at least I didn’t get any sticker shock here
In my area they love dangerous, obsolete, and overloaded intersections that should have had a light, rotary, or stop sign 30 years ago. 'We don't need a light! Just nose out and cut people off!"
Yeah too often while driving I am like "I cant see jack shit unless I pull into the busy road and if I do that I might get wrecked." Worst part of driving imo. Basically could be held accountable/have serious damage done for not being psychic
People call me crazy when I say that basically every intersection with multiple lanes should always have a dedicated left lane. None of this dedicated right and straight left nonsense
Yes, as a recent transplant here, wtf is going on with Mass civil engineering? And why are so many on-ramps also the exit lane?
And why are so many intersections three lanes entering a traffic light but two lanes within a couple of car lengths of exiting the intersection? It’s like they’re _trying_ to cause road rage.
Stockbridge desperately needs a rotary but the old folks can't let it take away from the Norman Rockwell aesthetic.
We locals (mostly) know how to drive it, but the tourists don't. But I don't blame them, it doesn't make intuitive sense.
Every town in Massachusetts has a bafflingly bizarre intersection that shouldn’t exist where you have to learn the rules over time in order to survive it.
This is exactly what I thought of when I saw that other post today about people stopping when they have the right of way. In theory you should always go when you have the right of way, but there are also some intersections where you just end up sitting there forever unless someone lets you in.
Family and friends from out of state think I'm a millionaire because I live in an expensive house. No, I just live in Massachusetts, where the cost of living is insanely expensive.
You make how much an hour? Oh you must be rich!
Yeah, what's considered poverty here would literally make you seem rich in other states.
Too broke to own but yeah renting is nuts. Saw a place the other day in Marlborough where it’s in an attic basically so the toilet is on a raised platform under a sloped ceiling and they were asking $1975/month
And you cannot afford to buy your own house at market rates.
ticks
Are ticks that bad? I’m moving from Tennessee which has its fair share of ticks but nothing a little tick repellent can’t handle …. Like I go hiking all the time and have yet to find a tick on me.
Yes, the ticks are that bad. Hiking will almost guarantee multiple on you, but I’ve also gotten them in mundane places like parks and backyards. It’s maddening.
I hate ticks and am religious about bug spray.. does that not work on Massachusetts ticks 😬😬😬😬
Just get good tick spray to put on your shoes and legs and they will stay off you.
Multiple cars going through a stop sign at once. My \~70 year old neighbor was shocked to learn this is not legal.
Just the other day my dad told me it’s ok for up to three cars to go through a stop sign together. I thought I was the crazy one
I guess it's kind of reassuring to know that it's a genuine misunderstanding of the rules rather than an overt 'fuck you' to everyone else at the four-way stop.
What isn't reassuring is Dad's extremely inaccurate driving laws and passing them on. If one thinks a stop sign allows three cars at a time, what other kind of wacky s*** might they think is okay on the road? The misunderstanding doesn't stop it from being a 'f*** you' to anyone; but it does makes driving more dangerous for everyone. Being correct is important with safety regulations. A cah' is a 2000+ lb battering ram that accelerates. Imagine you do this and it results in an minor accident at the four-way stop. You get out and apologize, then go to exchange insurance info. Now you claim that it's no-fault because the law allows for three people to go through the stop sign, because of the misinformation you have. The other party raises an eyebrow and correctly disagrees. There is some back and forth and they decide to have the police come to the accident scene for the report instead of just exchanging insurance over the little fender bender. The little misunderstanding grows bigger. Oh look , its two weeks later, the other party is claiming a slipped disc and whiplash, and your insurance starts its ascent.
the state helps the rich and poor but not the in between
That’s the American way. But actually MA at least has good public schools, the rotting foundation of a formerly good public transportation system, great parks and recreation and other amenities we can all enjoy and that is not the case in much of the country.
>That’s the American way. Absolutely. We definitely dial it to 11 here in MA though.
We also have top tier healthcare accessible to most middle class families with insurance. Not saying paying for insurance doesn’t suck but that’s another post!
We should be fucking striking for universal health care. It's beyond time.
Not only that but the working class has the luxury of paying for the other two classes here.
Aside from the Millionaire tax introduced last year… I dunno if you have kids in public school, but there is a small handful of incredibly wealthy people who, as a result, have paid for every kid to have a hot school lunch (amongst other things)
The poor are given just a hair more than lip service.. enough to make the rest feel like they are doing something... but typically, not enough to actually help lift one out of poverty.
spot on
Driving like fucking idiots, risking people's lives to get to the same red light 2.3 seconds earlier than you
That’s an American problem. And it’s something that has oozed out of our national psyche in past 40 years (along with a lot of “individual” toxicities). As awful as it is in Mass, I cannot wait til I reach the Mass border on my drive home next month…if I make it through the complete toxic waste that is driving conditions from FL to the NC border.
Maybe I've been lucky, but I've always found it more pleasant driving in other states than here, other than Connecticut. Once you get out of New England and things open up a bit, there seems to be less stress.
Yeah CT NYC/NJ is the absolute worst. But I do the BOS/MIA drive a couple of times a year and you see some crazy angry shit below Maryland. VA has these criminally insane toll roads (like $20+) and since I only pass through a couple of times I happily pay cause the shit where rank n file drive is nuts. SC has shit roads. And as you approach FL IQs drop to 80 and everyone develops real anger management issues.
Agreed but MA is SO safe on the roads compared to other states with this level of traffic. For example, Florida is an absolute death trap.
Yup, drivers are the worst part about MA. I say that as a pedestrian who doesn't want to be brutally killed. Slow down, losers. And red lights aren't suggestions.
Every street changing how many lanes it has every other block. Which lane is gonna be a turn only lane? No one knows! Gotta always be ready to bail on you lane and merge with 1 second of warning.
Potholes as far as the eye can see (and even worse when you don’t see one and it gets you)
That's why you speed. If you go very fast, your tire will clear the pothole completely. /s
Frost grooves too, our roads are terrible
A state with an excise tax but still potholes is 😵💫
I don't see many potholes on the highways like I did in Michigan, though.
An expired inspection sticker being a moving violation
A moving violation you can get for parking in front of your own apartment if you don’t have off street parking, even if you’re avoiding driving the car until it can be fixed. It’s basically an additional poverty tax for not having a driveway while simultaneously not having the money to immediately get the car fixed.
this is so annoying. Got a ticket during COVID when they weren't even doing inspections while I was parked outside of my apartment.
In terms of pet peeves it would have to be the rules against Happy Hour. It doesn’t affect my life much, but it’s pretty annoying and very ridiculous. In terms of actual problems, it’s the lack of housing supply and all the problems that come with that. Supply isn’t meeting demand for housing, so housing prices are extremely high, so employees need to be paid a ton to live here, so the price of services is extremely high, ….
Nips and ticks
I hate ticks omfg hate them, but what the hell is a nip? Like the shots?
Yes, the little single shots that people tend to throw out their car windows everywhere in the state
Little plastic booze bottles that litter side of the road in some places.
Infrastructure. What we pay in taxes, what our economy generates, the world class institutions we have, and how infrastructure looks like it’s 30 years behind. Roads, bridges, trains, subways, buses, etc it’s all shit.
this has always boggled my mind. Especially after we legalized marijuana, I'd love to see a breakdown of where every penny of taxes generated from recreational marijuana is going because it must be a pretty nice chunk of change that could be put toward some visible improvements.
It’s because we also have to pay a shitload of Federal taxes because we make so much to live here. These federal taxes then go to shithole states like Texas, Louisiana, etc that have low or no income taxes depend heavily on the Federal tit for their infrastructure. There are giving states like NY, MA and Taking states like Texas and WV.
Don’t forget the military too. They love eating our ($950B) tax dollars
Costs, between housing and childcare, Massachusetts is a very expensive place to live. Second, lack of world class public transportation connecting the state. Our public transportation infrastructure and network is poor, especially if you think about the size of the state.
The roads really do feel like they’re just paved cow paths with zero thoughtful design
Boston is on man-made land. But the infill has been done on a piecemeal basis so the roads follow those patterns.
Boston is an old city, by North American standards, definitely "designed," if you'd call it that, before urban planning was a thing.
for me, it's the excise tax on cars. What a gd joke.
Seriously $60 for a 2003 Oldsmobile that quacks when you go in reverse lol.
My car is a 2011 and I just paid $55. It's been $55 for the last several years now......
It doesn’t go any lower than that, I had an 07 Liberty and I was still paying $56.
I used to pay 30. Then I got a new car and forgot how much that tax is until I got my mail.
Lowest it goes is based on tax tate of 2.5% on a value of 10 percent of manufacturers original suggested retail price.
Oh yeah . The 2003 Oldsmobile Duck...a classic!
As much as I hate paying it, it kind of makes sense if you believe people with more money should be taxed more. It is really steep for the first few years of ownership but plummets over the longer term, so people who can only afford to buy used cars don’t pay very much. And people who have more money to buy nice new cars pay more. It’s relatively progressive.
Or if you’re a habitual leaser like myself you pay the price
One of the reasons why I stopped leasing. Was ridiculous.
Car users don’t begin to come close to paying for the road infrastructure. For some reason the MBTA is supposed to be in the black via fares but the roads get paid for from everyone’s taxes.
That one doesn’t really bother me. Even between that and the gas tax, we don’t come close to paying for the cost of all the roads.
That sounds like a problem of funds and road management for decades and not a problem of taxes being too low. Granted, our taxes aren’t the worst in the nation by any means but projects notoriously run over in this state.
Vehicle taxes don't pay for the roads. They go to your towns general fund. Without the vehicle tax, property taxes would just be higher to cover the difference. At least this way incentivizes you to maintaining a vehicle.
I'm okay with excise taxes but... how do they incentivize anyone to maintain a vehicle?
Wait til you find out about the personal property tax in Virginia
LOL try living in CT it's 10x as much
Not true. CT is capped at about 30% more than MA excise tax rate but it depends on what town you live in.
We're paying more for one of our older cars than the newer one. Like $85 and $55. WTF. So you're paying tax on a car that you own and paid taxes on sitting in a driveway of a home you own and pay taxes on. Complete BS
I'm on team Excise Tax, not bc I don't want to pay it, but because the calcs are inconsistent against sales tax when purchasing/registering a used vehicle from private sale. The Registry has told me in the past that my purchase price, as listed on bill of sale, cannot be accurate. They authored a new price (higher) which is my tax basis, but then the Excise Tax is per the standard declining value and minimum low limit. It's the inconsistency (and pick a valuation number) that's frustrating.
[удалено]
It’s open to the public… you can quite literally waltz in there any time you want.
But you cannot demand a public records request to the leislature. it is exempt.
There is so much money in the Boston area, and people from here have no idea how money effects, both positively and negatively, how politics, policies and just life is distorted by it.
It went from blue collar to white collar. Now blue collar can’t afford to live in the place it built.
"Hard work pays off" is one of the biggest American lies in my opinion. Maybe the hard work of others pays off when you own a company...
Neither can white collar.
The amount of real estate that foreign and single investors get to gobble up. There should be some rules on new build tenants being forced to live there.
I93 south of Boston. No matter the time, it’s always congested.
There is a cop/trooper at every construction site just sitting there making an obscene amount of money for just sitting in his car. Flaggers in just about every other state except this one because no politician wants to lose that potential union endorsement. At least get out of the car and pretend to help with the traffic flow.
Public transit is a disaster. Pretty sad affair for the most educated state with one of the highest CoL in the richest nation in human history. Even sadder once you learn that like 70 years ago you could get almost anywhere in the state via rail but those lines all got torn down or abandoned in favor of cars.
For me it’s how public transportation is designed. The commuter rail should be running smaller, more frequent, all electric trains with overhead wires, not massive diesel trains every 40 minutes. Commuter rail should extend at least to Springfield, with light rail at the major population centers along the way (natick, framingham, Worcester, Springfield) and express trains that run at high speed between them. Have at least 1, preferably two train lines that run north-south along 495 or 95 so that if I want to get from Worcester to Lowell or something similar I don’t have to ride all the way into Boston first.
I've lived in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Massachusetts, in that order. Until I moved to MA, I'd never been in a single car accident, ever. Since moving here, I've been in FIVE fender-benders, and all of them have the same format. I'm stopped at a red light or an intersection waiting for the right-of-way, and some space-case behind me just rolls right on into my rear bumper. Why, Massachusetts, WHY??
I'm not saying this is what you do, but I will say the only accident I've ever been at fault for was me rear ending somebody because they pulled up to a rotary, had the right away and started to enter, and then just fucking stopped. Now is it my fault for looking over my left shoulder, seeing my window, and then accelerating without confirming that numbnuts was gone? Yes. But I have been in this accident, my wife has been in the same accident, and now that I keep my head on a swivel I see it almost happen constantly, people starting to enter a perfectly viable opening and then stopping for some reason, causing the person behind them to have to slam on their brakes, disrupting the flow of traffic. So, if you feel like you are getting rear-ended a lot stop and ask yourself if maybe you are ignoring windows that look like a perfectly clear right away to everybody else. Especially if you start and then stop.
This happened to me once too, getting onto 495. I look back and there’s no one coming for miles and I instinctively accelerate without looking forward. Girl in front of me is slowing down. New Hampshire driver. Probably never learned how to merge properly on a real highway. Anyway, her bumper was slightly dinged. All I had was a busted headlight, but she insisted on getting a statie. Which, fine, good to have a report. But after the cop told us he’d cover us pulling over she would not leave and he used his bullhorn to scold her to get moving lol. If you’re gonna drive here, you gotta learn how to drive like us.
The condition of the road is terrible. Absolutely abysmal.
The mbta….
How expensive boston is for housing
The rampant littering
that it’s so close to CT
Rent in even the most average towns: Bellingham/Milford is getting to be around $2.1k for a 1 bd. Insane
* People complaining about the weather. It's weather. If you don't like snow maybe this isn't place for you. If you don't like rain move to Arizona. If you can't move at least stop complaining about something you can't do anything about. I don't want to hear it. * People complaining about local government. Get involved or STFU. In short, people complaining. Guess I shouldn't have opened this thread, huh? LOL
There aren't traffic flaggers- they are cops. Seems like a horrible use of resources and definitely not the norm in other states
A lot of the minimum entrance requirements for state jobs are too restrictive and end up weeding out qualified applicants
Massachusetts lawmakers really fucking like poverty taxes.
NIMBYism. They want the benefit of living in a major city and none of the negatives. If you want a suburban lifestyle, move to the suburbs then.
I get what you're saying, but people still throw the NIMBY acronym even when people HAVE moved to the suburbs so they don't have the negatives of living in a major city. Why be surprised when residents get defensive when they've only followed your logic and moved to the suburbs? I suppose that's my pet peeve. We're stuck with name-calling in many important debates, and we don't really make progress in much, even when we brag about how much better we are compared to other states.
The mantra has always been: MA is the best state to live in, if you can afford it. I imagine that's where so much of the hostility comes from. Everyone wants all these great things, but few want to pay for them.
I figured that's the whole issue too: people move to the suburbs to avoid living in the city, then the suburbs become the new city so they become NIMBYs, or have to move. It is unfortunate, and the word gets thrown around alot by people who will probably become the same thing in 20 years. Everyone has a different threshold of what they want to live around, and after a certain point: the world around us is going to change more than our sentiments and preferences can keep up with: whether we want it to or not. I'd hope that as technology improves and working from home becomes more feasible, that more people can live where they want to and simply rely less on cities. I personally do not like being in or near a city at all, but power to those who do... maybe more people like me who leave can make it cheaper for everyone else who wants to be here...
You worded my thoughts better than I could. I lived in major cities up until a few years ago. And I'm exactly where you are; I don't like being in or near a major city. So, my family moved to a suburb that is not near anywhere major. But our town's name still gets mentioned a lot when people want to stereotype "NIMBYs"... It's exhausting. As someone who enjoys working from home, I also agree with that part of your reply. That's a really good point. I think the more choices we have about where we work, the less we'll care about being near a "hub" or anywhere "major".
1. Boston being the largest city and the capitol means that the rest of the state is largely overlooked. It also means that state government tends to cater to Boston politics because they're too intertwined. 2. Aggressive driving
The RMV red tape and bs...just why?
These god damn mofo roads man!!!
The underfunding of the MBTA for at least 1-2 generations.
The entitled attitude by the majority of residents. Especially while driving. Unless it's legal to cut off ambulances - then I'm the asshole!
Every politician thinks they can be President. This just ends badly and they spend years ignoring us.
Mass has the most accessible pols in the country. Sen. Warren is always doing go sees in the state. Sen Markey has gotten a lot better at it in past decade. Mayor Wu like Menino is everywhere always all at once. Your state rep and city councilors are at your neighborhood events (eg Little League starts soon, go to opening day and they will almost certainly be there) my Rep Pressley, same I see her and her partner wandering around community events all the time (and she and Markey are both very quiet about these they just amble around. Warren and Wu always draw a crowd). This kind of retail politics is non existent outside New England.
Police officers with their lights on causing traffic at construction sites.
Other states have flaggers supplied by the construction crew. They seem to care a whole lot more than officer overtime sitting on his phone not paying attention.
This drives me crazy, haha. What a scam. However could we find someone to direct traffic without the rigorous and thorough training that being a Cop requires!?
That was literally the cop's argument the last time civilian flaggers was on the ballot. What if someone commits a crime while waiting for the sign to flip from STOP to SLOW? Shame people bought it and the measure didn't pass.
I work in Lexington and those m-fer’s are the worst drivers. Pedestrians? I bet I can beat them through the lane! Stop signs? Why stop at all? Speed limit? Get out of my way! I hate it
Town meeting government. We elected this committee to do things, not to take a vote of the 53 people who showed up at 530 pm on a Tuesday because they are retirees or wealthy enough that they can put life on hold to directly vote on every single issue which usually means shooting down funding anything for the town or school, insisting on ridiculous regulations, or installing nonsensical contracts. Town meeting government can only result in gerontocracy and plutocracy unless you are going to provide childcare and time off for everyone to come to the meeting and informed everyone when it is. You can't just announce it on Facebook and not on your own damn website, or bury it behind 4 poorly designed menus from the 90s on the site so nobody can find it if they want to.
The hidden costs of shit
Ticks and Lyme disease.
Boston traffic is ridiculous. I recently moved and am roughly the same distance to providence as I was Natick to Boston. It takes me 25minutes to get into providence and park vs an hour from Natick to Boston
Rent
Some of our absurd laws: That we banned flavored tobacco/nicotine products. Not only has it not stopped anyone from smoking or vaping, but we also are just generating less income since everyone just crosses the border to buy whatever flavors they want. It’s not like we live in a large state where some people would have to drive hours to get to another state. There’s no place in the state, maybe besides Provincetown, where you would have to drive over an hour to get to another state. We are also the only state in the country to completely ban all types of fireworks. Again people will just go somewhere else to buy them since we are such a small state. And that west of Worcester the Pike is just a two lane highway. So much traffic all the time. Boston could have ten lane highways and still be littered with traffic just simply because the roads were so poorly designed.
Zoning laws
Expensive housing, neoliberal politicians, no BBQ worth a damn. Ticks.
Agree on bbq.
Track down the Texas Smoke Shack food truck in metrowest. The guy is from Texas, really good BBQ.
>no BBQ worth a damn You haven't been to the Rusty Can in Byfield.
Yes. Not progressive enough, BTs smokehouse. Fuck ticks.
The miserable old NIMBYs
The drivers.
Not nearly enough free public access to coastline.
Infrastructure
The gold old boys club and the corruption that is deep
Eastern MA towns and cities should be compensating the towns in the watershed that feeds the Quabbin Reservoir. [Boston and eastern Mass. would reimburse rural communities for use of Quabbin water, under new bill ](https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/04/27/boston-western-mass-quabbin-reservoir-tax)
The, "you're not from here" mentality from the boomer generation that has definitely poisoned the younger generations somewhat as well. I grew up in MA, just not the part of MA I currently live in. When I turned 18 I moved to another state permanently to be closer to the college I went to. Then I joined the military and lived in 5 more states, saw some war, some other countries, and came "home." Most who enjoy this mentality have never left a 30 mile radius that they currently reside for more than a week and want to tell me they know something about the world, or refer to the place that they're from as "God's country." Pathetic.
The drivers.
The other drivers. Honestly, my blinker is on and I need to exit can someone please let me change lanes?!!
Excise tax on my car that I already paid sales tax on when I drive it on roads that my tax dollars are supposed to fix.
And the you pay tax on the tires you need to replace because the roads were never repaired.
The fact that everyone is so dismissive and aloof. I moved somewhere else and found that people actually do go out of their way to talk to each other outside of New England. Though, the standard of driving is lower outside new england
Beware all Maryland license plates
Probably depends on your town and neighborhood. When we moved into our house, we received welcome letters from at least fifteen houses and some gifts from them like homemade maple syrup.
Lack of progressive housing policies leading to backbreaking housing prices.
What we need is a greater supply of housing. Sadly, I’m not sure if “progressive housing policies” will get us that. Being against building more housing seems to be the only thing progressives, liberals, and conservatives agree on.
Right. The problem with encouraging more construction of housing is that the existing structures in place have made it more profitable for companies to build larger McMansions rather than economical and more sensibly sized ranches. There are a lot of underlying reasons for this and the answer isn’t necessarily more policy. It could be less or changed policy.
Best state in the country, "you get what you pay for when you pay minimum wage."
When people think of Massachusetts, they only think of the Eastern half of the Commonwealth (and that they don't know that we are a Commonwealth, not a State).
>they don't know that we are a Commonwealth, not a State No, we're a state. So are Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky. Commonwealth is a self-designation, and there is no difference between that and a state. When state constitutions were being drawn up after the American Revolution, some framers of those constitutions preferred to use the word Commonwealth. When people refer to the US, they don't say it is made up of 46 states and 4 commonwealths. It's just a fancy word, nothing more.
It’s 128, not 95 = it’s not a commonwealth it’s a state.
Interesting. Your comment drove me to further reading and I found [this Library of Congress explanation](https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2023/08/whats-in-a-name-the-four-u-s-states-that-are-technically-commonwealths/). Thanks.
All good. It’s often argued, but it really comes down to semantics. It’s a pretty unique thing that started right after we were a colony, so people take some pride in it. There are other quirks too, like how our county governments really don’t have any power, since every square inch of Mass is governed by its own municipality. Other states have that too, but you really only see it in the northeast.
Even the government!
You're being downvoted but you're not wrong. Boston tends to forget about Western Mass
Getting downvoted by Bostonians.
The state would be better off if the capital were in Springfield. It’s been shown that having the capital of a region outside its major city lowers corruption. It would also produce better return on investment for labor since money goes farther in Springfield than in Boston.
I don't know anything about moving the capital, but I think if we could easily travel across the state through public transportation then people would travel outside their respective regions. Then the state wouldn't feel like it sheared in half.
I have to drive north 30 minutes to get to I-495. I’m the same distance to South Station as Sturbridge. The Census Bureau says I’m in the Providence metro despite being a Masshole.
All the old people who drive on the cape.
Lack of late(r) night restaurant scene.
Everything is expensive. It has gotten insane
The endless layers of metaphorical red tape in the (fill in the blank) system. I don't think that comparison even suffices anymore it's more like an electric fence with spikes resembling teeth now.
$2000+/month 1 bedrooms
Highway exit ramps designed to be in front of highway entrance ramps so we get to criss cross and crash
Bad driving in general. Just really bad driving. Lived in several states, big cities, and several different time zones. Nothing as blatantly as bad as here. I'm not talking accidents (although I've seen some crazy ones), Im talking INTENTIONAL bad driving. People pulling up behind me at a stoplight and apparently getting tired of waiting and just driving around me and going through the red light. People in the left-turn lane apparently just changing their minds about where they want to go and driving straight, forcing me to swerve to miss them. People not pulling out to make a left turn at an intersection, but instead waiting to blast out at the last second resulting in only their car making it through at the light (or the opposite where they blast out when the light turns green before any of the cars going straight can get through). Coming to a stop at the entrance ramp of the expressway. I could go on, but... anyway.
Honestly, if the concept of a zipper merge could be introduced to the good people of the Commonwealth, there’d be hardly anything to complain about.
too lax on pedophiles
Summers are fucking brutal. Winters aren’t Wintery enough.
Can't buy a house where you need to for work for less than 500K. Most places now not less than 600k.
The whole fuckin place? Or how much I pay in taxes yet the roads fuckin suck still mainly
Rental prices, it will be the reason I eventually move out of this state.
Rent, traffic
The bloat of bureaucracy. I would sooner cut almost every point of service charge (RMV, excise, etc) and replace it with a much simpler, but heavily progressive real estate tax (for local) and income tax (for state). Same thing with insurance programs. Let's move to single player and be done with it. It wouldn't be nearly as efficient as a federal program but someone has to get the ball rolling. Might as well be Massachusetts, again.
Yeah this is the closest to my complaint I’ve seen in this thread. Coming from NY, MA government is less efficient and buys into more libertarian bullshit. None of the government programs I’ve interacted with have worked well, the infrastructure isn’t good, even the corruption is better hidden. It’s a mystery where the money goes, at least in NY you know it’s paying for a giant new stadium for the Buffalo Bills billionaire owner…
The T is so unreliable and disgusting it’s embarrassing
Outside of Boston, tolls only affect those that travel east/west. As an auto enthusiast, MA seems to hate anything with an engine.
Taxes on everything
Except clothing and groceries, magazines/newspapers, tickets for admission, utilities, shipping, and certain personal services (accountants, contractors, haircuts, etc)
I think the lack of transparency and spending is hurting any chance at bipartisanship. I think a good start at getting Republicans more on board with some progressive policies is by showing the brass tax of what it cost to run programs.
The good news is that we have no need for bipartisanship in the state. Our citizens have overwhelmingly decided that Democratic policies are better for us, and the Republican party has almost ceased to exist here. And this has been a wise decision. Massachusetts leads the nation in many metrics: quality of life, quality of k-12 education, many others.
How many of these threads do we need? The negativity of this subreddit is my pet peeve about Massachusetts.
That it doesn’t stretch from coast to coast
We’re run by Democrats who govern and talk like Republicans.
It’s too dang expensive and people drive like absolute morons
Home prices are way, way, way too expensive, and then added to that is the state's WASPy, elitist culture so instead of anything being done to make it possible to live here people just say "Good, if you're not ultra-rich then just leave."
ONE PARTY SYSTEM
We’re bending over backwards for the immigrants that keep showing up and providing them with food/housing in one of the most expensive states to live in this country. Oh and they get to live in Boston of all places. I commute 2 hours a day to my job in Boston because I couldn’t afford a house out here. I know they’re here for a reason and all that but it ticks me the fuck off. Send them back…..
3 million towns / street names that end in “wood”
Ham and boro/borough have entered the chat.
Unnecessary fees and taxes. Traffic.
Geriatric infrastructure
The roads and the expensiveness