Brand new and insufficient

I have written in the past that the new tunnel system under the city has done wonders for Boston traffic. Honestly, someone was thinking when they set out to design the highway and the various ramps. I mean it. I'm not being sarcastic one bit. I have been really impressed with the whole project, except for the leaks, but that's a construction flaw not a design one.

No. The major design flaw is the lack of breakdown lanes. So much was put into moving the traffic through the city, but nothing to handle cars that can't make it through the city. Let's face it, some cars have bad days. Some just give up when the timing is worst, and that can mean in the tunnel. Some cars, with distracted drivers, can rear-end another person in the tunnel and cause a major tie-up in the tunnel like Monday's incident with a Volvo SUV.

Driving to work that morning was a dream come true. There was no traffic to speak of heading inbound. There was no merge congestion at the Neponset Circle upramp nor at the HOV lane outlet. No sooner did we turn the corner at Savin Hill, though, and we were stopped heading beyond Columbia Road. And it stayed that way until we all got a good look at the Volvo with the smashed front end in the tunnel. I didn't notice the sign any sooner, but those handy electronic pep rally boards that are usually used to tell people to Click It or Ticket, to watch out for motorcycles, or to Cowboy Up; Go Red Sox were finally put to use. The message: "Incident in tunnel. Expect delays."

I laughed to myself thinking, "no kidding." That's about as useful as Cowboy Up. Here I was at the entrance to the tunnel already delayed because of the incident. As I thought about it more, I wondered why they don't use those signs more effectively? After all my federal gas tax and someone else's toll money is paying for them. Why not say: Incident in tunnel. Right lane closed.

Although in this case the right lane wasn't closed at the time we went by, it was clear from the accident debris that the right lane had been closed earlier. The damaged Volvo was moved further down into the tunnel to a yellow cross-hatch area so that traffic could move in the right lane again. But why not have breakdown lanes throughout most of the tunnel except in certain areas? And why aren't those yellow cross-hatch areas better signposted to say they are for emergency stopping, or aren't they?

Either way, my perfect ride was wrecked. If I read the electronic sign at Neponset, I would have made sure I stayed out of the right lane, and I bet more people would have too. However, I don't know if it would have made a difference, because by now I'm so used to seeing useless messages on those boards that I just ignore them. That's probably why I didn't notice it until I was just in front of the tunnel's entrance.

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posted by Tim @ 8:56 PM (0) comments

Easy on the brakes, brother

Ever read those studies about people spending up to a month a year in traffic or some such thing? That's me. My daily commute usually takes me to the Southeast Distressway and under the city in our fancy new drainage system named, however unfortunately, for the late Tip O'Neill (I like his building much better than his tunnel).

Anyway, it's safe to say that in my regular travels on the broken-but-fixed-to-still-be-broken highways of Massachusetts, I sit in my fair share of traffic. It's part of the reason I started this weblog. I needed some therapy, and this is free. I've seen a lot on the roads, and I have chronicled it here, although I haven't been as diligent lately.

Tonight's ride featured a pleasant stop-and-go trail from the middle of the O'Neill sieve to about Malibu Beach, and most of that was behind a guy who was too hard on his brakes. In the 2.5 years of this commute, I have only had to replace my front brakes, which isn't bad if you ask me, considering they get more use than my accelerator most mornings and afternoons. But the guy in front of me tonight is going to need brakes faster than me.

Who's ever done this? Rolling to a stop, there's suddenly not enough room and you have to press harder so the car almost jerks to a stop. It's not the most pleasant feeling -- like you've come to the end of a roller coaster, right? That's how this guy used his brakes every time. Therefore, that's how I had to use my brakes every time, and the guy behind me. Even when I tried to give the blue Corolla some room, he would then brake sooner, leaving a ton of space in front of him, and very little behind.

Of course it didn't help matters much when his head disappeared from in front of his head rest as we were creeping along. I could see his face in his rear view mirror and he was clearly looking for something. That's when I put a little more room between us. When he popped back up, guess what was attached to his ear? His cell phone. I kept my distance.

Turns out that his conversation was very important to have at that moment, even as an ambulance came up behind us. All the other drivers in our lane managed to move out of the way, except for the hard-braking dude in front of me. He was busy talking. Luckily the siren gave him a hint of what to do and he moved to another lane, therefore sparing me any more hard stops behind him. He was now someone else's problem, and I could focus on other things like how many times I passed the car next to me. That's how I judge if my lane is moving faster than another.

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posted by Tim @ 9:27 PM (0) comments

Maine's red light rules

Having visited Maine a lot before I could drive myself there, I don't recall their red light rules being any different than those on Massachusetts. When the light's red, you stop, and stay stopped until it turns green. I think that's the rule in most states, or all of them, if you prefer. And it's the same in the foreign countries that use red lights.

One Maine driver though either didn't get the message, or Maine really is the way life should be, as its tourism slogan suggests, because up there you apparently don't have to wait for green. I was stopped recently at Truman Highway (or Parkway) and Dana Avenue next to a guy in a white car talking on his cell phone. The light was red. We were waiting. Then, without hesitation, the guy next to me started to go. I looked at the light. Still red. It was red on the other side, too judging by the fact that the oncoming traffic wasn't moving. So, unless this guy, driving a car with Maine plates, misunderstood the point of a red light, I don't know what to say.

I have seen my fair share of red light runners in my day. I can say that I've sped through a couple of yellows on occasion (I may rant about other drivers' bad maneuvers, but I am still human). There were even a few reds that I rolled through at 2 a.m. on country roads. But this was a morning, at an intersection that has a light for the very reason that a lot of bad accidents occur(red) there. This Maine driver's transgression was low on the scale of red light running instances I have seen, but I thought it was unique enough to post.

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posted by Tim @ 9:14 PM (0) comments