Commutes go on, one way or another

The last time Judith Nies rode her bicycle to work, the nation was mired in an unpopular war and protesters filled the streets to decry a Republican president. It was 30 years ago, when battles raged over Vietnam and Richard M. Nixon occupied the White House.

Yesterday, with warnings of gridlock and potential terrorism at the Democratic National Convention, Nies stepped back in time, hopping on her mountain bike and trekking from North Cambridge to Rowes Wharf, absorbing the glorious panorama along the Charles River.

"I'm loving this," Nies said, pausing near the Massachusetts Avenue bridge. "I'm thinking I should do this once or twice a week from now on."

Of course, tens of thousands of commuters stuck to their rush-hour routines yesterday, taking the same cars, buses, and subway trains as always. But unlike a normal Monday, when traffic peaks between 7 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., most left for work around sunrise, shifting the workaday traffic clog-ups back two hours.

The same thing happened in the afternoon, when the area's highways were busiest about 2 p.m., resembling the Friday before a holiday weekend rather than a Monday in late July.

State Police began closing Interstate 93 near Boston about 4 p.m., and three hours later, travelers had to get off the southbound portion of the highway at Exit 31.

But the process went smoothly, with no significant traffic backups.

The closure of the interstate at Medford Square prompted a curious display by Mayor Michael J. McGlynn, who, fearing gridlock in his suburban city, hired a steel drum band and draped a huge American flag on City Hall.

"If you're stuck in traffic here, we don't want you to experience road rage," McGlynn said in the afternoon, before the closures went into effect around sundown.

Even if yesterday's commute went swimmingly, legions of traffic operators and public safety officials filled the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority's operations control center at the mouth of the Ted Williams Tunnel, waiting for the worst.

But it never happened. All day, images of smooth traffic flow filled the wall of closed-circuit camera monitors taking feeds from all over the city's highway network.

"It's slower than a slow Christmas Day," one operator quipped as the digital clock on the wall read 5:30 p.m., normally the height of the evening commute in Boston.

In addition, on many of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's lines, less than half the typical passenger numbers showed up. The Newburyport/ Rockport line had a quarter of its typical passenger load.

"We have a good service plan, and we're disappointed it's being underutilized," said MBTA general manager Michael H. Mulhern. "An awful lot of people must have changed their plans. An awful lot."

Many Boston workers apparently decided the best route into the city was by ferry. State Environmental Secretary Ellen Roy Herzfelder, speaking at the Rose Kennedy Greenway dedication, said she rode a "packed" commuter ferry from Hingham. She had the sense, she said, that water transportation was the preferred method of commuting for many on the South Shore, particularly because of permanent lane restrictions on the inbound Southeast Expressway.

Denise Cosby of Cambridge settled on a low-tech commute. She walked quite a distance -- along the Esplanade to her office at One International Place near Boston's waterfront. Normally, she gets to work by first boarding a bus, then switching to the Red Line. This week, she found herself wary of the confined hollows of the MBTA tunnels.

"I don't like crowds, and it's a little unnerving with terrorist threats, so I'd rather not be in that kind of place," Cosby said.

Raphael Lewis can be reached at rlewis@globe.com; Kathleen Burge at kburge@globe.com. Anthony Flint, Mac Daniel, Kathy McCabe, Christine McConville, and Jamie Vaznis of the Globe staff contributed to this report.