Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Massachusetts
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 10-09-2017, 01:13 PM
 
Location: New England
2,190 posts, read 2,221,618 times
Reputation: 1969

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dm84 View Post
Not really. Buses scale, but they sit in the same crappy traffic that every car sits in and they limit you to a schedule. Expanding rail is more or less off the table due to NIMBYism.

Federal rules don't allow adding tolls to interstates to existing lanes, so tolls on 93 are out unless the rules change.

Given how bad traffic is, people won't be deterred by tolls because the only reason they're driving is because they don't have a choice. Look at how high tolls are in NYC, yet there's congestion at all hours of the day.
Ever heard of bus lanes?

Also why would people be against rail?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 10-09-2017, 01:16 PM
 
3,176 posts, read 3,680,772 times
Reputation: 2676
Quote:
Originally Posted by tysmith95 View Post
Ever heard of bus lanes?
Sure. What I can tell you is there would be outrage if a bus only lane was built anywhere and it wouldn't be long before it turned into a regular HOV lane.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-09-2017, 01:43 PM
 
3,755 posts, read 4,786,278 times
Reputation: 2857
Quote:
Originally Posted by darkone View Post
I moved back to this area last year after living away for over a decade, just returning for brief visits. I find that traffic on all the highways is much worse than 10-15 years ago. I don't recall routine weekend traffic jams and crawling traffic on 128 for example. Rush hours last longer it seems, 495 is worse etc. SE expressway is almost a 24/7 jam. Mass pike is worse heading all the way to Sturbridge. List goes on. I understand about the population increase.

My question is, do others who have been living around here continuously, view things the same way? When did things take a real turn for the worse? Do you have a more negative view of this metro area now as compared to the past as a result?
The population in Massachusetts is growing - not on the level of a state like Texas - but it's still growing. Also, the trend over the last decade has been for people to migrate towards cities and the towns surrounding them. So the city of Boston and pretty much all towns within 128 have seen population growth. So traffic is only going to increase as the population has increased.

Our infrastructure also has some big issues and needs to be upgraded. Using Texas as an example again, we don't need 16 lane highways like they have been building down there, but making some logical upgrades in key areas makes sense. For starters, interchanges in this state are abysmal. Examples are 95/93 in Woburn, 93/95 in Canton and 24 in Randolph. We need to start building stacked interchanges with flyover ramps and acceleration and deceleration lanes to make those big choke points move a bit more smoothly. Speaking of 24, it should be widened to 3 full travel laves from Fall River up to 140 where it currently drops from 3 travel lanes down to 2. That always leads to big backups during rush hour.

The big 128 add a lane project is a necessary upgrade and will finally get rid of the foolish practice of driving in the breakdown lane.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-09-2017, 02:08 PM
 
Location: North of Boston
3,679 posts, read 7,394,682 times
Reputation: 3652
I've been commuting in and around Greater Boston since 1989. I tend to disagree with TAM88 above, the population of the region has only increased about 10% in the past 30 years. The real driver for increased traffic across the area is the level of employment - or unemployment - in Boston and around 128.

During periods of full employment - like now - there is a lot of traffic. That has not always been the case. Anyone who was commuting along 128 or 495 can tell you that traffic was much lighter after the .com bust of the early 2000s. Traffic in and out of Boston was much easier from '04-'09 when financial companies were in a downturn, and so on.

I will make the additional observation that traffic here in Greater Boston isn't really that bad compared to areas like Greater New York City, the San Francisco Bay area, or Greater Los Angeles. When the weather is good, the rush hours are very predictable and generally well defined. The LA area, however, has bumper to bumper traffic for hours on end. People here in MA like to complain about traffic, but in the big picture, compared to other areas with high levels of employment and affluence, we don't really have much worth complaining about.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-09-2017, 07:27 PM
 
636 posts, read 702,347 times
Reputation: 494
As i mentioned in a post on 'the best decade in Mass' was the 1980s, In the 70s,80s, and part of the 90s, it use to be fun to drive in from Ma towns into Boston on weekEND day, the traffic on the southeast expressway and and other routes into Boston was light traffic. Weekday nights after say 10pm had light or no traffic.

Starting in the last 90s, Saturday Boston traffic is just as bad as weekday traffic.
Check out a Ma traffic cam at 3am: the Mass highways are jammed pack with traffic.
Now MA Home Sweet Homes towns have turned into traffic jams.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-10-2017, 07:13 AM
 
15,756 posts, read 20,346,743 times
Reputation: 20895
I always thought I-95 north of town would be much better if they would add a lane on the southbound side from Peabody to Woburn. It always seems the congestion of cars stacks up here up until the extra lane gets added right after I-93 headed southbound.




Same going northbound in the evening. Right after I-93, you drop a lane and this seems like where the brunt ofg the log jam starts from.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-10-2017, 08:16 AM
 
Location: Techified Blue (Collar)-Rooted Bastion-by-the-Sea
663 posts, read 1,860,608 times
Reputation: 599
Quote:
Originally Posted by gf2020 View Post
I've been commuting in and around Greater Boston since 1989. I tend to disagree with TAM88 above, the population of the region has only increased about 10% in the past 30 years. The real driver for increased traffic across the area is the level of employment - or unemployment - in Boston and around 128.

During periods of full employment - like now - there is a lot of traffic. That has not always been the case. Anyone who was commuting along 128 or 495 can tell you that traffic was much lighter after the .com bust of the early 2000s. Traffic in and out of Boston was much easier from '04-'09 when financial companies were in a downturn, and so on.

I will make the additional observation that traffic here in Greater Boston isn't really that bad compared to areas like Greater New York City, the San Francisco Bay area, or Greater Los Angeles. When the weather is good, the rush hours are very predictable and generally well defined. The LA area, however, has bumper to bumper traffic for hours on end. People here in MA like to complain about traffic, but in the big picture, compared to other areas with high levels of employment and affluence, we don't really have much worth complaining about.
I moved here from Los Angeles and I'm still bothered / irritated by the traffic here. That's saying something. I used to drive a lot there as well. The weekend traffic can be like how weekday rush hour traffic used to be - at times and on certain highways. That's what I notice. It must be the sheer population increase that's caused this.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-10-2017, 08:24 AM
 
344 posts, read 334,656 times
Reputation: 537
Quote:
Originally Posted by tysmith95 View Post

Also why would people be against rail?
Ask the people of Hingham when they were restoring service to Greenbush. They fought it tooth and nail for the most part, and even today they are in a "quiet zone" where the train isn't allowed to whistle at grade crossings.

Scituate, Cohasset, Braintree, and Weymouth were part of the Quiet Zone at one point too. I'm 90% sure Weymouth and Braintree aren't anymore based on hearing the trains myself, but no idea about Scituate and Cohasset.

I'm all for more trains; if nothing else more commuter rail run times give some different options and may help. Even then though, there are some areas where the train isn't a viable solution for a lot of people in a lot of areas.

Think of Longwood for instance. You get thousands upon thousands or workers, students, patients coming from all over every day. The only commuter rail stop close by is Yawkey, and even then it's a 15 minute walk (so useless for most patients at least). Yawkey only serves the Framingham-Worcester Line. I'm not even really sure if it would be possible for it to handle trains coming from north or south.

There are the D and E lines, but they aren't all that helpful unless you live near those lines. Coming from North or South and having to go all the way to park street to switch is a huge pain.

Too often the north and south shores get the short straw while the resources are going to metro-west. But hey, I can kind of afford my house maybe so I guess it's not all bad!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-10-2017, 08:44 AM
 
3,176 posts, read 3,680,772 times
Reputation: 2676
Ruggles is pretty close to the LMA and there is a shuttle that takes LMA employees to and from Ruggles.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-10-2017, 09:11 AM
 
344 posts, read 334,656 times
Reputation: 537
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dm84 View Post
Ruggles is pretty close to the LMA and there is a shuttle that takes LMA employees to and from Ruggles.
Masco is great but it's only for workers and some students. Even then a shuttle form Ruggles to Longwood can take 20+ minutes on a kind of bad day; the one form JFK takes 45 on a good day. If there is any snow on the ground those times double.

I think LMA's biggest issue is that while there are a few options, they are all kind of convoluted and indirect fixes. There really aren't even a ton of easy ways to drive in.

I really wish there was a way to make a large hub station in the area, but I don't see a way that is possible.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Massachusetts

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:33 PM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top