Little in day-to-day life is more frustrating than being stuck an endless traffic jam. But that was the situation for westbound travelers on the Massachusetts Turnpike on Friday afternoon. Traffic backed up in Sturbridge, where the Pike connects with Interstate 84, causing an astounding 45-mile slowdown.
Traffic volume on long weekends always presents challenges. But that’s precisely why Bay State transportation officials need to show more foresight in anticipating problems and greater urgency in responding when they occur. Massachusetts hasn’t been as aggressive as neighboring states in tackling slowdowns caused at least in part by toll plazas. State officials, in response, offer a now-familiar litany of laments. The narrowness of the Pike itself. The fiscal pressures on MassDOT. The long time needed to make roadway changes happen.
Comments
A 45 minute wait to pay a three dollar toll is a pretty low yield on our time. It was great this past Friday to zoom through the EZ pass tolls in New Hampshire at 55 mph. It was also great to see regular flag men rather than obscenely overpayed police officers directing travel around contruction sites in Vermont. And, road repairs were being done on Columbus Day in Vermont. Dont' see that here. Massachusets government is deplorable.
doc - It was a 45 mile back-up, not a 45 minute wait. The wait was closer to three hours.
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But if they take down the toll booths, how will the toll collectors get paid?
Stupid back water state. I love how people in Mass love to make fun of our neighbors to the north but travel through those states and realize that they value tourists and their revenue. Roadwork is done mostly at night and done at warp speed. Bridges repaired in weeks instead of decades. NH's tourism was in jeapody so they put in a modern toll system that speeds drivers directly to where they will spend their cash. Massachusetts? 45 mile back ups, antiquated toll system, government that couldn't care less. Rampant corruption and fraud by the almighty Democrats (DiMasi, Finneran, Flaherty, Tierney, Patrick, Kennedy, Menino, et al.). WAKE UP!
I travel the I95 corridor regularly. there are certain 'standards' followed in states such as: NY, NJ, PA, DE that Mass does not follow.
For example - far left lanes (3 to 4) are always 'EZ Pass', as is a far right lane or two, for large trucks.
Generally, only one or two lanes are for cash toll paying.
We desperately need consistency in the Northeast corridor on such things as lane management - small things can add to large scale backups.
The toll plaza issue notwithstanding, the Mass Pike backups show the stupidity of this country's reliance on the automobile vs. mass transit. Roads can't be built fast enough or wide enough to accomodate the seemngly exponential growth in car travel. Some responders mention how great we seem to be doing things in NH and like to blast Mass. political Dems for corruption, etc. But things aren't so rosy in NH as some would believe. To cite one example, NH is wasting milllions of dollars on the Spaulding turnpike in what will be a short-lived and eventually futile effort to solve rush-hour traffic backups at Dover Point caused by too many access points (isn't it supposed to be a "turnpike"? Def: "limited access highway") but mostly by tailgating drivers who don't want to yield to merging traffic. The construction will "appear" to solve the problem for perhaps a year or so, (or simply move the problem a few miles to the north) before some other, unforseen, aspect of human nature generates a new problem.
Amtrak reports yet another year of record ridership level, as does the Downeaster- so just imagine how much worse the traffic would be if not for AMTRAK! Yet what do the R's want to do? Cancel federal government subsidies for Amtrak, while subsidizing highway construction and automobiles by continuing tax breaks for the oil companies. The US needs to have a viable and reliable and sensible high speed rail system. All other traffic-mitigating measures (including high speed toll plazas) will be like applying a bandaid to a ruptured artery (no pun intended). Case in point: the big dig. While the Zakim bridge is pretty, and the tunnels have opened up the city to the waterfront, the traffic is still a mess while the MBTA is saddled with an underfunded and outmoded mass transit system. On second thought, perhaps the roads are adequate, after all, to handle the increase in walkers and bicyclists when the gasoline runs out.