On The Road With Cindy & Jeff | Jeff's Pet Peeve of the Moment

On The Road With Cindy & Jeff

SmartRoutes traffic reporters Cindy Campbell and Jeff Larson dish on all the latest traffic news in The Hub.

7/25/2008 5:59:12 PM

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Jeff's Pet Peeve of the Moment

Posted by: Anonymous on April 13, 2007 at 3:08PM EST

I see this almost every night and it never ceases to amaze and confound me.

93 NB in Somerville has a section between the Route 28 off and onramps that is clearly marked as a non-travel lane. (See my amateur illustration below).

In an effort to bypass the slow traffic in the legal travel lanes people use the offramp lane and then continue along this non-travel lane. Sure it’s faster, but come on people; hundreds of other drivers have managed to accept their inability to use that lane. It’s blocked off so that access to and from Route 28 is more manageable and safer.

What can these people possibly be thinking? Do they think they are above the law? Do they think the rest of us are stupid for not ignoring the law?

It’s not like they’ve made a mistake. They have made a conscious decision drive down this lane, to flout the law in order to pass a few other cars. The lane is at least a quarter mile long. If it were a mistake, they’d have plenty of time to say “oops” and squeeze into the legal travel lanes.

(2) Comments

Posted by: jfh on April 13, 2007 4:21PM EST

Of course this dangerous, anti-social behavior is (or at least used to be legal) on 128 between Rt. 9 and Dedham during rush hour. Whoever came up with the idea of officially using the breakdown lane as a travel lane during peak conditions ought to have their engineering license revoked.

It's a mighty unnerving experience to by exiting the highway from the right lane only to have someone zip by you on the right in the breakdown lane, cross over the exit you're trying to take, and continue down the highway in the breakdown lane. Dunno if they still allow this, but I know they were widening that stretch of 128 so that they could get rid of legal breakdown lane driving...

Posted by: Brad Deltan on April 17, 2007 11:12AM EST

The 128 Breakdown Lane usage is a desperation move, I believe...instituted to help soothe giant backups along the southwestern quadrant of 128. I personally rather liked it as most folks apparently didn't like using the breakdown lane so it was like my own personal express lane. I rarely drove much faster than the rest of the traffic...anything over 10 MPH faster was just begging for a crash...but at least I kept moving at a steady pace.

Jeff's peeve is different, though, and it's a revealing look at the problems with social engineering and how it relates to traffic. Lots of traffic engineering seems counter-intuitive because often it's TRYING to slow you down. Frazzled commuters don't usually understand that; if everyone slowed down a little, we'd all get to work a lot faster. Instead, if 99% of everyone slows down, inevitably SOME jerk will take advantage and speed up...and someone else will do it, too...and someone else...and someone else...and it's right back to utter chaos again.

I'm sure you've noticed that often there's a slowdown on the highway for no apparent reason. These happen all the time - even when the cause of the slowdown has long since been cleared, the choke point remains until the traffic volume drops enough to let it clear out. Usually hours later.

So why doesn't MassHighway put up alert signs every two miles (or so) that flash whenever there's a choke point and tell everyone for ten miles back to voluntarily slow down to, say, 30MPH to let the choke point clear?

For exactly the same reason Jeff is annoyed; there will always be at least one jerk who speeds up...and that one jerk begats dozens more. Social engineering just doesn't work when there's an apparently tangible benefit to being "greedy".

That's also why this lane restriction is really a bad idea. It's NEVER going to completely "work" because of human psychology. So instead you've got a handful of scofflaws who potentially make things even more dangerous by violating the rules and freaking out everyone else. Or by realizing too late they're in the wrong lane and slamming on the brakes and swerving.

MassHighway should either put up permanent cones to physically block the drivers using that lane...or they should just remove the restriction. Personally, I'd argue towards the latter...I never see all THAT much traffic coming off of Rt.28 onto I-93 north. But I'd defer to Jeff since he watches the traffic cameras there all day. :-)