Time for a real fast lane
Imagine a Massachusetts governor attaching his name to a sign across the highway claiming credit for a toll booth. Not a chance. Well, in Illinois, Governor Rod R. Blagojevich has done it many times. The secret is that he is bragging about open road tolling on Interstate 90 and other major highways. The idea is that you travel at highway speed right through the toll plaza if you have their equivalent of a FastLane pass or an E-Z pass. If you need to pay cash, you can also go through the small, regular toll plaza.
Here's a picture I took of this last night, on the way to O'Hare Airport after a cousin's wedding west of Chicago.
Sorry about some blurring in the picture, but it was at night, and it was raining, and I was driving alone while taking the photo, and I was going at "highway speed." But you can clearly see the through traffic lanes to the left, along with the traditional toll booth on the right. On that big blue sign above the through lanes, it proudly says "Open Road Tolling -- Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich".
In a press release a while back, the governor said:
Our tollway system was intended to make it easier and faster for drivers to get where they're going. But it became slower and less efficient over the years, as more people began using it. That's why, a little over a year ago, I outlined our vision for a new Open Road Tolling system. Today that vision starts to become a reality. By implementing the best technology and planning, we can help commuters spend less time in traffic and more time doing what they want, like spending time with their families," said Gov. Blagojevich.
Gee, what a great thought. Less time in traffic. Now, I know that not all toll booths along the Mass Pike, our tunnels, and the Mystic-Tobin Bridge would be suitable for this, but I wonder whether some would be. Especially if we thought about moving the toll plaza to a different spot along the roadway or redesigning so the traffic doesn't have to expand out to a lot of toll lanes and then squeeze back in again afterward right away.
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waiting in traffic, waiting in the ER
Now if you can only staff the emergency room so I don't have to wait two hours with a throbbing broken hand before I see the doctor, we'll have made some progress. It's a true story and it happened at Beth Israel on a weekday in the afternoon, long by the post author arrived on the scene in Boston.
I'm not complaining about all the health care I received at the BI. I had surgery that I thought was completely satisfactory and good post-op care.
Yup, sorry, but
sometimes there are long waits in the downtown emergency rooms -- whether ours, or MGH, or the Brigham -- especially in the afternoon. And, if you have something like a broken bone, there is a reasonable chance that somebody with something more life-threatening problem (stroke, heart attack) will leapfrog you in the queue. Not that it is always an option, but if you find yourself near our hospital in Needham, the wait is always shorter -- and it is staffed by the same doctors. Sorry to cause you problems this time around, though.
that's a neat trick
the wait is always shorter -- and it is staffed by the same doctors.
Cloning? :) C'mon.
Back on topic: a "highway speed" tollbooth doesn't seem like it would be terribly useful, given that much of the traffic woes on the turnpike are from...well...traffic. When I did the commute into Boston from the burbs, I sat at the Weston tolls every morning because of traffic on the *other* side. Application of this would have to be very carefully considered, and even then, it might not be physically possible given how tight land space is.
The proposed tolls on I-93
The proposed tolls on I-93 would have been of this kind.
How is land density a factor? If you can fit a highway sign, you can fit a toll transponder.
You have plan for the outflow
If you have people whizzing through at 60 mph, you can't have them converging from, say, 8 lanes to 3 in the first hundred yards after the toll transponder. (Think of the current Rte 128 or Allston toll plaza as an example.) To avoid multiple crashes and pile-ups, the through lanes have to be true through lanes, without expansion before the transponder or merging and compression after the transponder. Meanwhile, the lanes going to the slower tooth booth off to the side need room to reconnect with the main road a bit downstream of the payment booths.
everybody i know...
Everybody I know has a big but. - P.Herman
So you are driving alone at
So you are driving alone at 60 mph at night in the rain in a city where you don't live and you decide to take a picture?
Yes, but...
He was 1000 miles from Boston, so he knew that at least he wouldn't end up in Boston's Worst ER if he crashed into a Jersey barrier. That bit of comfort made it worth the risk.
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
As a transplanted Chicagoan,
As a transplanted Chicagoan, I have to say I was surprised when there were no fast lanes. BUT, I would like to remind you that these great open road tolling systems actually cost me more time in traffic than normal tolling would have... these babies took like 5 years to build! (They also tore up all of our major tollways to do this) Also, in Chicago, there are way more tolls than Boston (Yes, I'm telling you guys that you have it good)... Not to mention that if you DONT use open road tolling, tolls for cash users are doubled, up to 1.60 or 2 dollars, and yes, they CAN use these transponder records against you in court... Well, you know what they say, the grass is always greener.
Jersey
Pretty sure they have had one of these at the top of the Jersey Turnpike for several years now. There's about 4 high-speed ezpass lanes, and then the 4-8 cash/pass lanes to the right.
Yes, Oil Can
At heart, I am an infrastructure junkie, so I notice stuff like this wherever I go. And, now that I have a nice little digital camera, I can nab shots anywhere. Don't worry, though: It was not a single lens reflex camera! For the record, I was going 55 (set by cruise control).
BTW, I was pleased that my rental car came with a toll transponder. A nice feature.
I can appreciate that and I
I can appreciate that and I don't mean to sound judgemental. However I am reading Tom Vanderbilt's book Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), which is a pretty good read. I just finished a piece where he talks about the number of decisions that we make each second when we are driving. It certainly made me think about the relative importance of doing things like talking on a cell phone or changing the radio dial while driving.
Two of these are certainly on Garden St Parkway
The northern-most end of the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey has two toll plazas like these (with 50 mph lanes).