Its even worse during Allston Xmas, the city in its infinite wisdom decided that most leases end on the same day. All the schools also have the new semester start right around the same time, and all the new students arrive within that few day window.

Lets paint this picture, the city is in panic mode as the student population makes up ~25% of the population of Boston, and they are all returning for the new semester. They likely have just moved as their old lease is up and their new one starts on the same day. They will take all of their worldly possessions and put them into the back of their friends sedan and drive to their new place, anything that wont fit is left on the curb. The previous tenant of the new place did the exact same thing. They put all the things they care for into their new place and decide which furniture from the previous tenant is good enough and put it back inside. Anything left on the curb by ~4 PM is fair game, and will be disposed of by the city next time the collect trash

The freshmen, whos parents are sending their spawn to MIT or BU have a u-haul (that they dont know the height of) carrying all their worldly possions, dispite their tiny dorm not having the room for it (and being told this repeatedly by the school). All it takes is one of these muppets to not pay attention and one of the major arteries into the city is blocked. Traffic will back up for miles, non-masshole drivers operating things that should require a CDL are trying to take short-cuts navigating the narrow boston city roads in small box trucks and every residential street will be a mass of double parked cars as the city collectivly shuffles the entire student population in a day.

Chaos is an understatement (its a lot of fun to watch).