Battling bottlenecks on morning drive to Boston

When it comes to a commuting race to Boston between boat and train and car, the car is the biggest loser. And on this race, so was I.I know there are shortcuts, and colleague Steve Krause so much as told me so, but I decided to stick to the directions received when I’d punched them in online at Google Maps. They told me to take Route 1A all the way, and I foolishly complied.’BZ radio was telling me this is a good traffic day. I couldn’t disagree, but I still don’t know why anyone would do this all the time, especially after the brutal winter we’ve only recently seemed to emerge from.I hit the first bottleneck at 8:10 a.m. at Oak Island Variety in Revere, with some sluggishness at the traffic light.Traffic at Bell “Circle,” usually a nightmare at any time of day, was surprisingly sparse.The next delays were on the McClellan Highway going from Revere into East Boston. Bumper to bumper most of the way but moving, at least.Finally, the last bottlenecks were at the Sumner Tunnel entrance – no surprise there – and again at Merrimack and New Chardon streets just out of the Sumner.The last delay was having to go around the block at the Marriott Long Wharf/Central Wharf in the hope of finding legal on-street parking. I finally decided to suck it up and park in the Boston Harbor garage by the New England Aquarium. The fee for up to 20 minutes? $8. The fee for 21 minutes to 10 hours? $18.At a total cost of $25.26 for the one-way trip, maybe a bit less if I could scrounge up a cheaper parking space, I’d still have to think hard about the “convenience” of taking my car into town.