The 2004 Democratic National Convention will be held in Boston, from Monday, July 26, to Thursday, July 29, with an expected 35,000 people attending, including 6,000 delegates, 15,000 members of the media, area dignitaries, diplomats and foreign honored guests.

Two years ago, according to the Boston Herald, Boston pundits ranted about how the coming convention would highlight Boston’s new image as a city that works. Predictions of enhanced tourism and the luring of more conventions abounded.

Today, on the eve of the event, the picture is not so bright. As a trucker, I will forego discussing the myriad of headaches facing Boston during the period leading up to the convention and concentrate only on the roadways and transportation issues.

During the convention, massive traffic tie-ups are being predicted, and truckers and others would do well to avoid Boston that week.

Many of the headache-causing security measures come at the insistence of the Secret Service, which has designated the convention a “national special security event.” All vehicles in the downtown area, for example, will be subject to random searches.

Traffic plans for the duration are in place. However, Highway Commissioner John Cogliano warns that for existing plans to work, the amount of Boston-bound commuters traveling along local highways and transit systems must be reduced by 50 percent.

Here are the reasons: I-93, from Route 128 in Woburn to Route 128 in Braintree (2,000 vehicles per hour can occupy a single southbound lane on this Interstate) will be closed from 4 p.m. to midnight during the convention. In addition, local entrance ramps to I-93 north from Braintree to Boston will be closed, as will local entrance ramps to I-93 south from Woburn to Boston.

The Sumner Tunnel and Tobin Bridge will be closed. Eastbound Storrow Drive will be closed from Western Avenue to North Station.

Non-emergency vehicles will be banned from the Bulfinch Triangle district, the blocks bounded by Merrimac, Causeway and North Washington streets.

No parking or stopping will be allowed between Charles and Arlington streets, on Boylston Street from Massachusetts Avenue to Arlington Street, or on Massachusetts Avenue in the Boylston Street area.

Some secondary roads also will have traffic restrictions or lane closures, including portions of Route 1 north of Boston, where travel will be reduced to one lane.

North Station will close for the entire week (about 25,000 people travel through North Station, which includes the Fleet Center, every day) and the four commuter rail lines from the north will stop outside the city and riders will be bused into Boston. Subways will not stop at North Station during the convention.

Inner harbor commuter ferries from Lovejoy Wharf in downtown Boston will be suspended for the entire week.

On Interstate 93, the high-occupancy-vehicle lane on the southbound side of the highway will be closed to normal commuter traffic and used exclusively 24 hours a day for emergency vehicles and Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority shuttle buses. Referring to this fact, The Merrimac River Current reports that Cogliano said: “If you don’t reduce traffic and you take out that one lane, by 7 a.m. there will be a 6.6-mile backup. Within two hours, it will increase to 14 miles and it just grows from there. We recognize the impacts to the public and we’ve tried very hard to minimize those impacts … This just doesn’t affect Boston. It affects the whole region. It could go as far as (Interstate) 495 and beyond.”

According to Boston.com News, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino asked federal officials for a waiver on airspace restrictions around the Democratic National Convention to allow traffic reporters in helicopters and planes to monitor the unprecedented road closures and traffic jams predicted during the four-day event. Under current plans, traffic reporters and other media aircraft will not be allowed to fly in a 30-nautical-mile ring of airspace around the FleetCenter at a time when unprecedented traffic detours are being imposed citywide.

Concerning Boston Mass Transit for the duration, MBTA General Manager Michael Mulhern says, “I’m of the opinion that it might not be as bad as a lot of people think it’s going to be, especially given the fact that I think we’ve scared a lot of people already.”

He’s right.

Boston, we will be praying you emerge from this chaos as “a city that works.” However, we will be praying from points far away.

Guy Bourrie has been hauling on the highways for 20 years. He lives in Washington, Maine, and can be reached at [email protected].