New Celtics hate Boston traffic
Even if you have only lived in Boston for a short amount of time, you learn pretty quickly that the easiest way to get anywhere is mass transportation. It appears to have taken a few failed driving attempts for some of the new Celtics players to learn this lesson.
On Thursday, Jessica Camerato of CSNNE.com asked some of the first-year Celtics about their experiences trying to drive around Beantown. Here are the responses she received:
Darko Milicic
“(Last Friday) it took me two hours to get here from where I come from. There was traffic. I don’t know where these people are going. New York is 10 times bigger than Boston. It’s worse here and this city is 10 times smaller than new York. I don’t understand where these people are coming from. It’s wasted time. I hate traffic. I left an hour-and-a-half early and I thought I’d be there in a half (hour). It sure wasn’t enough because it took me two hours.”
Courtney Lee
“It snowed. I’ve seen it but I haven’t driven in it [in a while]. It was crazy. Snowing already? . . . Orlando and Houston don’t compare to Boston. The only place that compares to navigating through Boston is New Jersey. It’s kind of similar, especially with the New York side of it right there — the traffic, one-way streets, the Mass Pike. I’ve gotten lost a couple times. It’s a good thing Benz makes a great navigation system. It helps me out a lot.”
Fab Melo
“Me and (former Celtics training camp invitee) Jamar (Smith) were trying to find our way to the Garden the first time we came. We could see the Garden by every angle, but we couldn’t find the right exist. We didn’t come. We had a duckboat tour and we couldn’t find the way. We had a GPS. It didn’t work, we didn’t make it. Now I know my way to the Garden. It’s good.”
Jared Sullinger
“No, [I haven’t got lost]. When you have an iPhone and you have all these good apps, it’s only right that it helps you out . . . There’s no similarities to driving in Ohio. In Ohio, people can drive. In Boston, there’s a lot of traffic so I feel like they can’t drive but I’ve got to understand there’s a lot of traffic so that naturally happens. It’s really a slower pace here, due to traffic. I leave at 4 o’clock, 4:15 so that I don’t have to run into a 5 o’clock jam.”
Jason Collins
“Last Friday, the traffic was so bad. I live maybe three miles from the Garden. It took me over 45 minutes to get here. I tried to take Storrow (Drive) because the navigation says it’s the shortest way. At one point I really thought it would have been quicker to walk.”
Kris Joseph
“I’ve began to wonder who’s worse, New York City drivers or these drivers. They don’t let you know when [they’re] trying to switch lanes or anything. They just do it. . . . I’m cool [getting places] because I stay with the GPS. I don’t care if it’s the long way or the short way. It’s going to get me there. To be honest, I’ve done more driving in the United States than I have in Canada, period. There’s a lot of public transportation there. But [a daily commute] is cool because I stay 10 minutes away from the practice facility so it’s not too, too far. Here, you’ve just go to leave early to beat that traffic so it’s cool. I’ve been doing alright.”
