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Readers: What are the rules for driving on Mass. roads?

Let us know the best practices for driving in Mass. for newcomers.

Boston, MA 03/05/24 - Afternoon rush hour traffic chokes the Jamaica Way on a rainy day. (Lane Turner/Globe Staff) Lane Turner/Boston Globe Staff, File

By Nia Harmon

August 12, 2024

1 minute to read

Getting accustomed to the rules of the road in a new place presents its challenges.

This raises the question: what should drivers know before they get behind the wheel in Massachusetts? According to a recent thread on Reddit, the differing traffic rules here can be surprising.

“I truly don’t know how to feel about this as one of the few safe drivers in this city (coming from out of state). Seeing people do this gives me such anxiety when there is heavy traffic/pedestrians/bikes in the crosswalk,” wrote one Reddit user.

Turning left on red if you’re exiting a one-way street and turning onto another one-way, turning right on red with the red arrow, and even being able to drive in the breakdown lane are allowed depending on where and when you are driving in the state.

“Not only is it legal, you feel like a bad bad man doing it,” another user wrote.

However, turning right on red looks different when traveling through Cambridge.

In 2022, Cambridge City Council passed an order prohibiting right turns on red at all intersections in an effort to eliminate “all traffic fatalities and severe injuries,” as stated in the policy order. This decision was inspired by the Vision Zero initiative, a global collaborative that aims to make roads safer through traffic law reform with the common goal of decreasing driving-related accidents.

Along with Cambridge, Washington D.C., New York City, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, have also implemented the “No Turn on Red” rule in certain parts of their cities.

We want to know: What should drivers in Mass. know about the rules of the road? What is something that you wish you knew before driving for the first time here?

Fill out the survey below or send an e-mail to [email protected], and your response may appear in an upcoming Boston.com article.