Massachusetts Turnpike

It's purely selfish, I'll readily admit: I now get through the Weston tolls a lot faster.

See, so many people now have transponders that they queue up something fierce at evening rush trying to get onto 128, because they can't use the lanes still staffed by actual people - of which there are typically at least four. Me? I'm a lazy cuss and I don't have a transponder. So all I have to do is weave in and out of the stalled transponder losers and get myself to one of the manned booths and I'm outta there.

Actually, even getting on the turnpike at Framingham is usually quicker for me than for the FastLane slowpokes for the same reason.

So what if this costs the authority money it doesn't have? It works for me. Thanks, Teamsters!

Dental convention backs up traffic on Pike. State Trooper quoted as saying the problem was that all 28,000 attendees at the annual Yankee Dental Congress at the convention center seemed be on a molar express for the opening session, which really bit for people just doing their morning drill, trying to get somewhere else on the turnpike and I-93 this morning.

On a road trip to Syracuse, Maureeen Rogers noticed a colossal flat bed hauling lobster traps west on the turnpike:

... Whatever else global warming has brought us, it has not yet brought us MidWest lobsters. Yes, the shorelines eroding, but it hasn't gotten that far yet. So, since lobster trappers in New England seem to have gone over to the new fangled plastic wired cages, I'm guessing this truck load was heading to someplace that was going to turn them into coffee tables. ...

It signed long-term air-rights leases without any requirements that structures over the turnpike be maintained. Then again, it could give us fun new songs for the kiddies:

Pru tunnel is falling down
Falling down
Falling down
My fair lady. ...

Just something to think about as you pay your higher tolls today on the Boston Extension and drive under this.

That didn't take long at all: Truck takes out brand new Allston U-turn.

A small trash fire at Park Street that a single MBTA employee put out by himself managed to screw up the evening commute for thousands of people: The Red Line was shut between Harvard and JFK and Green Line trains didn't stop at Park Street.

Rob Sama is fuming:

I walked all the way from South Station to Harvard Sq, was turned down by one shuttle bus for being "too full" and lied to by another cop about trains running, only to get to Charles MGH and find trains NOT running, only go get to Harvard SQ and find a load of people getting off a train. WTF? ...

But at least Rob got some exercise. Marcy Dewey gets steamed at an MBTA flack who proclaimed the disruption "brief:"

I got on the Red Line train at South Station at 5:00. We did not start moving down the track until 6:15!! That is not BRIEF! Especially on a Friday!!! Especially when you are underground, without cell phone reception, and - worst of all - CLAUSTROPHOBIC. ...

Mwbworld reports she got stuck on the Orange Line in the morning (remember that?) and the Red Line in the evening - and finally got home to JP to find out her power was out:

... So why do I live in Boston? It's not the "cheap" rents. It's not the convenient and dependable public transportation. ...

Oh, driving was no walk in the park this afternoon, either: At one point, the turnpike westbound was jammed from Westborough 20 miles back to 93; the turnpike eastbound from Rte. 9 in Framingham to at least Weston (for my own sake, thank goodness for Rte. 9). The Expressway was a mess, all in all, just not a good day to try to get anywhere in the Boston area. Or as Sonia puts it: Another crappy commuter day.

If today's news about Deval Patrick's proposal to create a MegaTransportation Authority sounds familiar, it's because Mitt Romney came up with the same idea.

Why your afternoon commute sucked on the turnpike or the Framingham line.

Because they'd smash into each other as they race to get onto Storrow from the Allston/Cambridge turnpike exit.

Will is distracted by that giant LED thing that got turned on this week at the new 'GBH building by the turnpike:

What is WGBH thinking?? A massive screen hanging over the highway?? ... I drove by this a week ago as they were testing it and it was distracting enough. ...

With little else to do during a monumental turnpike backup last week, Liz composed a prayer that begins:

Oh merciful heavens, hear my cry! Your child mourns in the dark valley of the Turnpike, and wails upon the stones of 128, and gnashes her teeth and heaps ashes upon her head when she hath the folly to attempt Route 9 as an alternate route. Oh, maketh my lane to clear, oh Lord! ...

The Herald reports Deval Patrick is looking at leasing key roads to private companies, who would then be able to make money by squeezing commuters like a turnip.

Here's the thing: Although the authorities that now run our toll roads (the turnpike authority and Massport) are isolated to some extent from the public they allegedly serve (hence the "quasi" in "quasi-public"), the are, ultimately, still responsible to our elected officials (just ask Christy Mihos). Private companies? All bets are off:

... In Indiana, for example, a deal to privatize that state’s toll road led to a 100 percent up-front toll hike, and the possibility of 7 percent annual increases over the life of a 75-year lease. ...

Not that, in the greater scheme of things, toll increases would be a bad thing, if, say, they meant greater investment in public transportation, but the odds of that happening with private ownership? Hah!

3Mote watches a Masshole in a Geo Storm shred two tires on the turnpike near Mass. Ave. when trying to cut off some guy who'd annoyed him.

Sean Roche is getting annoyed that Turnpike tolls will be going up again to help pay for the Big Dig:

... Higher, peak-priced tolls on the 'Pike would be welcome (with standard caveats about managing the impact on the complex transportation infrastructure).

But, it's insane that I-93 remains a free ride, especially given that technology exists to charge vehicles without erecting a single tollbooth. ...

Tour bus carrying him out of Boston after a Friday debate stops short to avoid a drunk driver on the turnpike near Exit 17.

Post-accident photos.

Via Loaded Gun.

Turnpike ramp is falling down, falling down, falling down ...

Sister Lorraine ponders the question when confronted with a Masshole doing Massholish things on the turnpike:

... Things like that are really annoying and I was starting to feel angry about it. But then all of a sudden Jesus' words in the sermon on the mount came back to me, what he said about responding with a blessing when people curse you. It struck me that I had a choice about how to react. ...

Two car accidents (one fatal) 25 miles apart were enough to create highway gridlock throughout the Boston area this afternoon.

Daniel, the Globe's transportation reporter, has been appointed communications director at the turnpike authority. What that also means: Now, instead of asking the tough questions about Big Dig ceiling collapses or turnpike toll increases, he'll have to answer them.

So the Big Dig isn't the only part of our transportation infrastructure always on the verge of collapse. A state commission reports roads, highways, public transit, you name it, have fallen billions of dollars behind basic maintenance needs.

A roundup of reactions:

Casey Ross summarizes the lowlights.

On Pelican in Her Piety, Jason says he is just shocked by how much of the state's transportation budgets go toward wages and fringe benefits, in particular, health insurance: Read more

Why are all the tollbooth attendants being so nice all of a sudden? Well, most of them, anyway.

Bus winds up on divider at Weston tolls.

No one injured in Allston crash.

Exclusive photos?

Sco says yay on environmental issues and nay on the loss of toll-collector jobs:

... I appreciate that the very purpose of unions is to protect peoples' jobs, but I have to say that the reason that we have tolls is not to provide employment for toll takers. ...

Carpundit writes that if the tolls stay west of 128, it will be the first tax hike of the Patrick administration.