I-95 / Route 128 Woes (Boston, Lynn, Peabody: shop, moving to, public transportation)

[dragonborn]

Originally Posted by TAM88

We will have to agree to disagree. Saying Boston's traffic is on another level above Miami's is not true at all in my eyes. Boston also has a substantially better transit system than Miami does which helps take cars off the road. So I have a hard time hearing that Miami, with a larger population and a poor transit system, has less traffic than Boston does.

You also realize that you are in a high density area with a ton of businesses and that widening any highway will be met with heavy local opposition.

I am talking about the 95/93 interchange in Woburn that will eventually be redone.

I93-I95 Interchange Improvements Project - Photos and Images

Comparing Boston's traffic to a city like Miami's traffic is rather apples to oranges anyway. Miami's population has skyrocketed over a relatively short space of time and it's a much newer city. Cities like Boston, New York and Philadelphia were around during a time when subway systems were first built, cities like Miami expanded much later on, designed around the car.

I do like the fact that Boston has much better public transport though. Perhaps one solution is to build more railways to connect the outlying towns to one another, not just into Boston itself.

I'm sure there would be local opposition to widening 95/128, but would people rather be choked by traffic and traffic fumes? Much of the land that the highway passes through is semi-rural anyway. There is enough space to add another 2 lanes each side, IMO.

[TAM88]

[TAM88]

The above design would go a very long way to improving the interchange and overall traffic flows greatly. Hopefully this is what gets built.

[wxjay]

^I agree, but if they are elevated ramps there will be big trouble in the cold season with icing. But I see that as the only way to get those ramps to function effectively.

[charolastra00]

Any intersection with the crazy criss-crossing of people merging before others get off the highway is a mess. I take Rt 2 to 95 and it's the same problem - the intersection backs up for a mile or more, people try to cut in instead of waiting in the line (which often makes sense - most of the backup there is for 95S and when I want to go 95N, it makes more sense to take my chances getting in line further up), and at points you have people merging onto Rt 2 while others are trying to cut into the line RIGHT at the off ramp. It's a mess and I have seen many accidents that way.

I'm sure it worked well 50 years ago when far fewer cars were on the roads, but it's horrifying now.

[LexWest]

Originally Posted by miu

Ditto on adding lanes to 128, by the time any project is done, the people population will have grown and the extra lanes won't make any difference.

More public transportation options are also needed, but that takes time and money. And we also need to decrease the human population in eastern MA.

BTW the rush hour traffic in the major highways surrounding and through all the major cities of the US and the world is really really bad. The beltways around DC and Atlanta, I-95 in CT... we really need less people on this planet.

Originally Posted by dragonborn

Agreed on less people

Fix that, make the entire stretch 5 lanes and you'll make it move again. Past 93, it generally moves pretty well, unless there's an accident.

Pray tell, what are your solutions to less people on this planet? are you suggesting nearly everyone else should leave, except you and and your family and/or friends? It's so easy to say, people should leave, yet no one will nominiate themselves; and unfortunately unless a severe famine or tragedy strikes the land, life expectancy or births decrease significantly, population increase will likely continue. People need somewhere to live.

In any case, I also think increasing lanes will only go so far until the existing roads are once again crowded, although MA's population isn't increasing as rapidly as TX or GA.

Perhaps a more futuristic idea would be if more companies allowed people to work from home, perhaps a few days per week at least, which might alleviate some of the traffic on the roads.

BTW, I've seen I-93 I-95/128 look worse than the 2nd picture dragonborn had shown: While it is congested, traffic appears as though it's still moving along, otherwise I would expect fewer spaces between those cars. Perhaps my perception of really bad traffic is different, or that wasn't the "worst" of it.

[Cato the Elder]

I sometimes wonder whether eastern MA gets its fair share from the interstate system (yeah, I know the Big Dig does not help matters in our favor). Ironically, since we are a relatively transit friendly/conscious metro, I suspect we can get ignored more easily. States like Texas, Florida, and Georgia get monstrous flying interchanges ("spaghetti" junctions) built for hundreds of millions of dollars a pop - the "High Five" near Dallas clocked in at 261 million for one interchange. The High Five replaced an "antiquated" three level interchange from the 1960s, which is basically what the I-93/I-95 interchange will be when it's finished years from now! I don't think most of us will ever want a five level interchange as that likely signals a fundamental shift towards an over reliance on the automobile, but we might have to be "squeakier" at the federal level to get at least some basic improvements.


Spaghetti Junction in Georgia


The High Five in Texas

[dragonborn]

The High Five is an impressive structure!

@ TAM 88 - that design looks great. I think it'll help a lot and will hopefully reduce the bottleneck.

@ Lex - I agree - encouraging more people to work from home should be the next logical step. There's no excuse now and many jobs can be done remotely.

[massnative71]

Saying that adding more lanes will not solve all traffic woes is not the way to go about it. The truth is there that there will always be traffic, but Massachusetts really does need to wake up and update its infrastructure to this century. It is getting ridiculous, we are begining to resemble the 3rd world.

[miu]

Five lanes isn't the answer. The wrong people are in the fast lanes. And also, just like many drivers are afraid of dealing with a rotary, many people can't deal with switching lanes. Heck, I see a lot of drivers that aren't able to merge into highway traffic well. They either blindly dive into the highway without looking or... stop and enter too slowly. Both are dangerous maneuvers.

I suppose that it doesn't help that most people have their left hand glued to a cellphone that is attached to their left ear... which leaves the right hand on the steering wheel and no hands left to use the turn signal.

BTW I HATE drivers that don't use their turn signals or use them at the last possible second.

And Miami traffic on I-95 s*cks balls.