A lot of people expected there would be no more traffic in Boston once the Big Dig was completed.   A lot of people expected Cape delays would disappear once "The Flyover" was finished.    Neither is true.   But that has nothing to do with whether the projects have been successful. 

"The Flyover" was expected to improve traffic heading to the Cape.   It has done that.  I don't believe it was expected to cure traffic woes leaving the Cape.   It hasn't. 

There has been a lot of anticipation and discussion of the new configuration on the approach to the Sagamore Bridge on Route 3 southbound. The new Route 3 “Flyover” has traffic down to one lane as it merges with traffic from the Scenic Highway and onto the bridge. There has been a lot of worry that having one lane would jam up traffic, and the delays would, in fact, be bigger than before.

However, on Friday and through the weekend, there were relatively few delays on Route 3 southbound. The only backup on Friday afternoon was a 3-mile delay on Route 3 southbound that was a direct result of a truck breakdown on the bridge. Once the breakdown cleared, the delays eased as well.

The return trip was less pleasant. There were significant delays (17 miles worth) coming off Cape on Monday afternoon, at the end of the Memorial Day weekend. However, this should not have been a surprise. In my understanding, the “Flyover” was not expected to improve the traffic flow leaving the Cape.

The choke point for traffic leaving the Cape has always been, and continues to be, the Sagamore Bridge itself. Fixing the traffic pattern on the other side of the bridge does little to improve the backups getting to the bridge. It might slightly improve the situation by making traffic move better over the bridge itself, but most of the problems leaving the Cape are a result of slow traffic caused by the bridge itself.

My experience and observation of traffic coming off the Cape is that it starts to move better, once over the peak of the bridge. Traffic would often back up on the bridge, approaching the rotary, but generally only if there was a crash (which admittely was often).  The rotary was not the cause for volume related delays.  "The Flyover" will certainly reduce the number of crashes, which should improve delays.  But the fact remains, the major cause of delays leaving the Cape, the Sagamore Bridge, is still there, unchanged.