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Massholes are simply in a lot of pain
By adamg on Fri, 09/04/2009 - 7:38am
IBM has been studying stresses on American motorists, and has released a report claiming stress among Boston drivers is up dramatically this year - enough to push us from the second least stressed out major driving city in 2008 to the fourth most stressed group of drivers in the country (in your face, New York, we're more stressed out than you). Only LA, Washington and Miami drivers experience more agita on the daily commute, based on a survey of 4,440 drivers in ten major US cities, IBM says.
Some 47% of Boston drivers reported being stressed out on their commutes, up 10 percentage points from last year. According to IBM, Boston drivers rated the following as the worst roads for commuting: I-93, Routes 95, 128 and 495, "downtown."
And why is IBM studying drivers that aren't installed on PCs (ba-dum-DUM)? It sells "smart commuting" systems governments can use to try to get traffic to flow better.
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Comments
93 southbound during the
93 southbound during the evening rush would flow a whole lot better if they opened up the HOV as just an extra lane instead of gating it off for carpoolers. It's the south end of the HOV where all the carpoolers are trying to get to the right before 3 splits off that causes all the problems in the area.
The add-a-lane-left/drop-a-lane-right at the southern exit of the artery tunnel is a fairly awful design too.
HOV lanes are a failure
The whole design only causes large backups, cars idling and an epic waste of gas, the exact opppsite of its intention.
Statistics, please?
Last I checked, HOV lanes were carrying 2-3 times as many people during peak hours than the non-HOV lanes.
Something to think about: Commuter transportation policy is not and should not be about how many motorized vehicles are moving in and out of a city. It has to be about moving people.
Really?
I doubt that. Whats your source on how many people are using HOV lanes. I drive that way all the time and they are usually sparsley used while 3 other lanes are jammed up.
How much energy usage is being used by having these lanes cause backups vs how much is being saved by encouraging people to car pool. How many people decide to car pool just because there is a HOV lane from Drochester to Qunicy/
I would guess very very few.
Don't like it?
Take the train.
Actually, opening the HOV lane to free flow traffic
probably wouldn't work too well for the same reason anon cites as their justification for removing the HOV lane restriction entirely - that being the proximity of the south end of the lane to the MA 3/I-93 split.
It's all but certain that the backups would increase in all lanes on I-93 south because of the increased traffic that would be merging from the contraflow lane into the weaving area prior to the MA 3 ramp.
Although it's probably not politically feasible, in theory you could extend the barrier and restrict the PM contraflow lane traffic to going to MA 3 only. However, you would still have a merge issue on the MA 3 ramp because of the traffic entering I-93 south within the contraflow lane area that wants to go to MA 3.
HOV lanes are great. Let's make more.
Maybe you should carpool and you speed right on by all the angry massholes. It's good for the environment and your wallet too.
Personally, I'd love to see the HOV lanes expanded to 128, the pike, and 93 north of the city.
If lots more people starting using the HOV lane...
They are poorly designed and probably do little to encourage car pooling, not to mention car pooling is not an option for most people.
Not wanting to talk to
Not wanting to talk to people in the office is very different from "not an option"