Ellen Finer’s morning routine is simple. Head from her home in Swampscott to Beverly to drop her son, Alex, off at school. Then onto the Seaport District in Boston for work — simple.
But lately, it’s been anything but easy.
It's been weeks since our last major snowstorm — and the recent warm spell has the whole region thinking spring-like thoughts. But the snow is still piled high in much of the region and the effects of our historic winter are still being felt by area drivers.
"You know the governor lives in Swampscott?" Finer asked.
You’d think they’d plow better, but even the street that Gov. Charlie Baker lives on is not plowed so fantastically. And it’s one of the major cut-through streets too.
"Cut-throughs," as she calls them, are an indispensable part of Finer’s commute. She uses them to avoid traffic lights and trouble spots.
"It’s six of one, half a dozen of the other: Do I want go on the main roads and have the possibility of getting aggravated?" Finer said. "Or do I want to go on the side roads, which I know will move, but not all the snow is completely pushed back?"
After a close call with a car as we emerge from a parking lot onto a main road, we arrive, unscathed, at the Dunkin' Donuts drive through window.
Act 2: Getting Alex to School
This leg of Finer’s commute is dominated by one-lane roads. With that come the usual pitfalls. We’re slowed behind a guy more interested in his phone than the road, and a garbage truck that can’t get to the side of the road due to snow banks.
"I’ll sit there and be talking to cars in front of me, telling them that they’re assholes, and, like, why aren’t you just moving, and people lose their patience," Finer said. "I at times can be one of them."
On this leg we travel through a myriad of municipalities: Swampscott, Salem, Beverly. And there’s a marked difference in how thoroughly each town has cleared their snow.
"There’s parts in Salem that the road is just completely horrendous, as well as Beverly," Finer said. "There’s still probably a good number of roads that are still down to one lane because the towns, they’re not plowing anymore.
Challenging, but frustration remains mostly in check, and we’re only slightly behind schedule when we arrive at Alex’s school.
Act 3: The Long and Pock-Marked Road to Work.
As we come to an idle, in a long line of cars leading up to a traffic light, Finer points out one the biggest culprits of her swollen commute time: Turning lanes at traffic lights, still buried in snowbanks.
"OK, so this is another lane in my right, and it’s still completely snow filled," Finer said. "So everybody that needs to take a right up here is now in this lane, which at times brings this traffic smack through the square."
For the record, that square is way behind us. There were at least five or six instances of turning lanes buried in snow on our commute.
Then there are the potholes.
Potholes have already landed Finer’s car in the shop once this winter. Still, we press on, and after a sluggish stretch on Route 1A, we emerge from a congested, but moving, Ted Williams Tunnel in the Seaport District. Compared to the North Shore it is remarkably well-cleared.
After two-plus hours in the car, we finally arrive. Finer says that time has been par for the course since our first big snow at the end of January. Before that, she made it in — regularly — in an hour. So how does she cope?
"Find something that’s gonna entertain you while you're driving, whether it’s music, talking to your friends, thinking about your next vacation, find something that’s gonna entertain you," she said.
And above all, try to stay patient.
"Seventy-five percent of the time I’m patient, the other 25 I lose it," she said. "But I just tell myself this is what it is I can’t change it. So I try to stay calm. Some days are better than others."
And with this recent spell of spring-like weather, there is now at least the hope that those better days will, once again, soon be here.
As always, if you have something you are curious about, email Edgar at curiositydesk@wgbh.org. He might just look into it for you.
