Letter from Boston Sundays On Memorial Drive By MASAKO YAMADA	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
日曜日の歩行者天国 ケンブリッジのチャールズ川沿いに、メモリアル・ドライブと呼ばれる大通りが走っています。ここは日曜日になると歩行者天国として開放されるので、天気がよければ多くの人が集まってきて、自転車に乗ったり、インラインスケートを楽しみます。

Memorial Drive is one of the main streets running through Cambridge. It is a simple highway that stretches along the Charles River.

Drivers can run along the highway and then get off at any of the side streets, since it's really just a normal road. There are no highway exits to wait for. This makes it convenient for people who need to get to a local address but don't want to drive through the notoriously unwieldy Boston and Cambridge streets.

In spite of its being such an important road, a long stretch of Memorial Drive is closed down to traffic every Sunday from spring to fall. Police barricades are set up so that cars can't get onto the road. This is so that the public can enjoy using it as a riverside park. Many people flock to Memorial Drive on Sundays to in-line skate, ride bikes, push baby strollers or simply to walk along the river.

I had never used in-line skates until this year, and I learned how to do it on Memorial Drive. It is a scenic path that's also the perfect length for getting a nice workout. Cones are set up near the end of the path for daredevils who like to skate around obstacles.

It is such a popular destination for skaters that skate rentals are available on the street. The famous Rollerblade brand sets up a stand and rents the skates for $5 (¥580) an hour. A less famous rival called K2 also sets up a stand — but K2 rents its skates for free!

Since K2 is the underdog, the company does this to gain recognition and to receive feedback. Although this is an incredibly kind service to the public, the company doesn't treat the service as a charity. It treats it as a long-term business strategy.

In order to prevent theft, the people at the stand ask for a credit card or a driver's license to hold onto. If the skater runs off with the skates, either the cost of the skates is deducted from the account, or the skater is left with no driver's license.

Not only does the company try to protect itself from theft, it also tries to insure itself against liability suits. It requires that all skaters sign a form accepting full responsibility for any injuries. The company requires helmets, knee pads, elbow pads and wrist guards to be worn and it provides these for free as well. This might seem like a big pain for the skater, but the entire process of getting ready takes only a few minutes, and the skates are of truly high quality.

Although Memorial Drive is a delightful place to go on Sundays when the weather is nice and there is nothing else to do, it's undeniable that, really, people are just going up and down a street. It doesn't seem that it attracts many people from out of town.

On many of the Sundays, however, Memorial Drive is a place where special events are held. The Head of the Charles regatta is one such event. This is a world-famous sporting event, but it takes on a carnival-like air. Thousands of people throng Memorial Drive to walk around, sit on the grass, sample different kinds of junk food and, perhaps incidentally, watch the boats go by.

Smaller scale parades and fairs are also often held on Memorial Drive as well. Whenever such events take place, the street takes on a much livelier air. It's no wonder, considering that it becomes packed with trucks vending different kinds of food.

Once it starts getting cold in the fall, Memorial Drive is no longer shut down on Sundays. There is one group of people that will probably welcome the return of a normal traffic schedule: those who must drive through Cambridge on Sundays. I've seen a confused-looking tour bus wander through some very small, residential roads in Cambridge, most likely because it couldn't go smoothly down the highway.

While I understand how annoying it must be to have to take traffic detours every Sunday because a bunch of people are playing in the street, I, for one, will miss that kind of play during the winter.

Shukan ST: Oct. 30, 1998

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