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Like many others, I commute Northbound into the city on Southeast Expressway (Route 93). This is the one that is famous and the one that you hear about every morning on traffic updates. It even has famous point-of-interests, such as Gas Tank, Windmill, Fortress Building, and my favorite, Squantum St
Background (skip if you are familiar)
Just like many other highways, the expressway has an HOV lane that is separated by concrete barriers. The unique thing is that the lane is "created" each day by moving the concrete barriers, and the lane created is "borrowed" to the opposite side/flow of traffic. So, one lane from, say, Northbound, will be sectioned off, and Southbound traffic uses it. (so, if you had 4 lanes North, and 4 lanes South, it'd turn into 3 lanes North and 5 lanes South)
The way they create the extra lane is by using these HUGE VEHICLES (I will call them "Monster" from here on) that move the length of the highway to move thousands of concrete pieces over, and they do this four times a day. 1) Create Northbound, 2) Remove Northbound, 3) Create Southbound, and 4) Remove Southbound.
Do you see the problem?! Am I the only one who thinks this is stupid?
Problems:
- The current method wastes energy, gas, and manpower.
- The Monster always interrupts traffic, because its sound, light, and enormousity scare the crap out of people causing them to stomp on their breaks.
- The Monsters take 45~60 min (my estimates) to drive the distance, which means Boston loses access to a lane almost 4 hours a day.
Solution:
-Why can't they just permanently establish both the Northbound and Southbound HOV Lanes, and change the direction of traffic using gates or signals? Every other city does this. And creating a gate cannot cost that much. This will take care of ALL problems and save the state quite a bit.
Readers have left 16 comments.  1. HolyCAh...this one was inevitable. I do the "reverse" commute, but this one pisses me off too. I can't stand watching them waste all that fuel to move those Monsters up and down (14 miles). Imagine the gasoline, maintenance, and the manpower to run those things!
...and yes, I hate those people who slow down only because those trucks are approaching them. 2. Guest User With such a simple solution, why can't they fix it? 3. MikeL Maybe the concept was established before they came up with that solution. though the conversion does not seem that hard. ![[smiley=think]](http://www.unleashyouranger.com/components/com_jreactions/custom/templates/simple/smileys/smiley_think.gif) 4. Jack I can see your point, but think about this:
With your solution, you'd always have two single lanes going in either direction, rather than simply one HOV lane. So there'd be an "all traffic" lane all by itself, isolated from the rest of traffic by a barrier, all the time. How could you possibly ensure that the traffic in that lane is balanced with that in the other two "all traffic" lanes? That lane could get horrendously backed up 3 miles from the start, but no one would know it at the start, so they'd unwittingly drive into it, and then be completely trapped for the next 11 miles. So what do people do then? Avoid that lane. Causing the other two to back up horrendously, until people realize what's going on, and crowd the isolated lane again. And the cycle repeats. I think that having an isolated, full traffic lane is a terrible idea. HOV can get away with it due to the much, much lower volume it experiences. I'm sure traffic engineers thought this through when they designed the current HOV system.
Furthermore, yes, for 2 hours a day (not 4, as you said, because they can do both north and southbound simultaneously), the zipper trucks are operating. But this is NOT during rush hour, which is the critical time. 5. Bo One thing I've always wondered. What happens when there is an accident or a break down in the HOV lane? There certainly isn't room for anyone to get around the disabled car. And they can't move the barriers. Anyone seen this happen? 6. Smdgen Bo, Yes, I have seen this happen. When there is an accident, they will actually take out the pieces of the concrete barrier out, so the traffic stuck behind an accident can escape. They have a specific crane type of truck on standby for this purpose. 7. KMark Jack,
All traffic lane concept exists in many other cities. They put those green circle or red x, depending on if you can get in there or not 8. Guest User What if we just get rid of the concrete barriers, THEN apply the red/green thing. Isn't this the way they do it many places? (like an honor system - why doesn't this work in Boston? Wait, don't answer that.) 9. Sarah7861 They also put concrete barriers on the north side of the city too. Apparently, Boston drivers cannot be trusted. 10. Jack What if we just get rid of the concrete barriers, THEN apply the red/green thing. Isn't this the way they do it many places? (like an honor system - why doesn't this work in Boston? Wait, don't answer that.) — Guest UserSo one one side of the median you'd have a lane of traffic going the wrong way, right next to two lanes going the other way? Doesn't that seem a bit suicidal? 11. Jack Jack,
All traffic lane concept exists in many other cities. They put those green circle or red x, depending on if you can get in there or not — KMarkHow do they know what the traffic is like in the lane? Do they have spotters, or sensors or something? 12. KMark Jack,
I believe it is on a timer/schedule. I have seen gated ones too, where the police drives into the HOV lane, shifts the gate behind them, and drives over to the other side, then opens it. 13. Suicisan I agree with Jack that it'd be suicidal. 93 is a crazy mess already. 14. Shib76 The whole point of HOV lane is to encourage people to car pool, right? Does anyone know if this is working in Boston? I am thinking it's not... ![[smiley=sad]](http://www.unleashyouranger.com/components/com_jreactions/custom/templates/simple/smileys/smiley_sad.gif) 15. Jack Jack,
I believe it is on a timer/schedule. I have seen gated ones too, where the police drives into the HOV lane, shifts the gate behind them, and drives over to the other side, then opens it. — KMarkOk... my point has nothing to do with the trivial problem of when or how they switch the lanes from one way to the other. I am talking about a much more subtle but more serious problem of traffic dynamics that would result from this plan. You have three lanes of non-HOV, and one HOV lane. Ignore the HOV lane for now. One of the non-HOV lanes is surrounded by concrete barriers. It is impossible for traffic to naturally balance between that blocked off lane and the other two lanes. You'd end up with traffic see-sawing day to day between backing up in the two open lanes, and the one blocked off lane. The overall congestion would be worse than the current system, which results in three completely open lanes for non-HOV traffic. Re-read my first post and think it through. 16. GreenOrangeRedBlueSilver Jack, I thought about the complication of having two lanes that are blocked off from the rest, even though I believe examples of this exist in LA. My other idea was to introduce a whole another lane in the middle dedicated for HOV, which would flip direction, depending on the time of day. (I think there definitely is enough space to create one if we moved the concrete barriers.) Currently, there are 4 lanes north, and 4 lanes south. (which shift to 5-3 or 3-5). So, I suggest they make it 4-HOV-4. Now, that sounds like a solution to me. Light poles? That's what we got headlights for. ![[smiley=evil]](http://www.unleashyouranger.com/components/com_jreactions/custom/templates/simple/smileys/smiley_evil.gif) |
