Bostonites, don't you love misinformation on the Big Dig?

[Windogg]

I'm watching something on the History Channel on the Big Dig and I love the misinformation that people are being fed. They seem to make everything so peachy keen. Ok, I'll give them that. it's a big projects, crap will go wrong and I'm sure what we think is a big waste of 11+ Billion dollars might be worth it someday.

What really annoyed me is how they use the Ted Williams Tunnel as a example of what the project is all about. They show a tunnel free of traffic with vehicles cruising freely as if on a two lane backroad.

BS!!! I love how they neglect to tell people that 95% of the time the tunnel is closed to general traffic. Instead it is only open to taxis and commercial vehicles going to Logan Airport. Anyone that accidently blunders into the tunnel by accident (and it's east to happen because of poorly marked signs and constantly shifting road), you will be subject to a hefty fine and points on you license. Oh yea, and you have to pay the $4 toll to get back into Boston. So when is it open? It's open on select days when there is generally NO traffic like on holidays. $1.2 Billion spent on the tunnel and you are not allowed to drive in it.

Meanwhile, the rest fo us Massholes still have to struggle with the Sumner Tunnel. It takes give or take 3 hours to get to the airport between 6AM - 11AM and 3PM - 7PM. It can take even longer if you get lost in the unmarked labrynth of roads in the general area.

GRRR... just a rant about life in the People's Republic Of Taxachusetts.

 

[lavie]

<< Meanwhile, the rest fo us Massholes still have to struggle with the Sumner Tunnel. It takes give or take 3 hours to get to the airport between 6AM - 11AM and 3PM - 7PM. It can take even longer if you get lost in the unmarked labrynth of roads in the general area. >>



I am just curious. If ?taxis and commercial vehicles? use the new tunnel, why does it takes the rest of people in the non-commercial vehicle takes so long to get to the Logan Airport? I know things in Boston cannot be logical but if the commercial vehicles use the other route, wouldn?t it seem logical that those of us in the non-commercial vehicles should take less time to get to the Airport?

The mystery of traffic.

lavie

 

[kranky]

After being there a couple times, I wouldn't drive in Boston if they gave me a free Ferrari to use. The horror! The horror!

 

[guyver01]

You think boston is bad.. try philadelphia... i musta driven back and forth over the Ben Franklin bridge 7 times when i was there last... talk about poorly marked signs.

 

[loup garou]

Tunnel? What's a tunnel?

You ask these things when your hometown is below sea level.

I'd say you guys would last about 5 minutes driving in New Orleans before you rammed your car into a &quot;goddamn bridge embunkment.&quot;

Poorly marked signs? Ha! Half the streets in New Orleans don't even have signs!

Every other street is one way, the wrong way.

You have exactly the width of your car in road to drive down a 2 way residential street because of cars parked on both sides of the road. WTF do you do when a moving van comes from the other direction?

Drunken tourists in the French Quarter don't realize that not every street is Bourbon Street and walk in the middle of whatever street they damn well please.

Construction. You would think the City of New Orleans would be smart enough to undertake one major road resurfacing, etc at a time, right? Noooo...they like to start 5 or 6 major projects at once, so they can have the minimal amount of construction workers on each task, and close off or reduce to one lane several major roads at once.

And best of all, if you get in an accident with another vehicle--even if its not your fault--odds are you're screwed, because half of the damn drivers in this city don't have insurance. :|

Just my little rant after driving into work this morning.

 

[Namuna]

Windogg,
You are on the money man! You KNOW road conditions in Boston are bad when even the NATIVES get lost!

Poorly marked signs, multiple turn offs, constant road changes...It's time for the Skycar to become a reality!!!

 

[Total Refected Power]

I NEVER give driving directions for Boston to anyone. Mind you I have lived here for almost 6 years. When I drive here it is largely instinctive. I just find my way. It really sucks.

 

[Windogg]

Whoa. This thread rose from the dead? While other cities are bad, they cannot compare to Boston. The best way I can describe the situation is that it was created by a horse's ass. Literally, the original streets were laid out from paths taken by live stock going to Boston Common to graze. So they basically followed a horse's ass and paved a road behind it.

guyver, what makes the Ted Williams Tunnel a 1000x worse is that cops knowingly bait people to go into the tunnel. They sit on the other side just to pull over people that make an honest mistake and hand them a fat ticket. The insulting part is you have to pay a $4 toll to undo that mistake too. Not only that but many local roads in the area have been closed to all but contruction vehicles. Blunder onto these roads and it's a $250 fine. The streets change constantly so you never know when a road is closed.

lavie, I wish it were so but it's not the case since passenger vehicles outnumber commercial vehicles by a large margin. Not only that but several point converge on two narrow lanes to get into the tunnel with no lane markers or signs. What makes traffic worse is that because of the other projects in the area, roads change constantly. At one point there was no direct way (still really isn') into the tunnel. You usually have to exit the highway and loop around surface roads to enter the tunnel.

Finally the layout of the tunnel from the other end isn't much better. It's near the airport so commuter traffic gets mixed in. To add insult to injury, the tolls to enter are perpindicular so instead of splitting from 3 lanes to the tolls, it's 3 lanes then a 90 degree end around to get to the tolls. This means that the left 3 lanes are always packed and the right 8 are usually empty. No one can take advantage because the road bottleneck at the 90 degree turn. The situation get so bad that during rush hour, the police force you to exit off the I-93, drive 10 miles down Route 1 to the town of Revere and then make a U-turn and back track you way to the tolls. Their whole rationale is like a spill way to a dam. This usually adds and hour or two to the trip.

 

[AaronP]

well, the guy does put up 22 points, 7.5 rebounds, and like 5 assists a game, and he is a pretty clutch shooter, but his defense is lacking a little bit. I tell you what though, I'll take the Big Dog over Grant Hill or Jason Kidd anyday. They screwed him over for rookie of the year, now he's on a winner and they're sucking it up in jail or on the injured list.

 

[mikee]

haha, aaronp. i don't know about taking him over grant hill though. dude was fighting with his teammate ervin johnson the other day.

I got so tired of Boston that I had to leave and come to california last year. got tired of the crappy weather, roads, and surly folks. It's tough trying to give someone directions driving around that city. Basically, you can't. It's trial and error. However, if you miss a turn or something there's no reason to panic. You'll end up where you started sooner or later anyhow.

 

[SUOrangeman]

I've got two words for you: Springfiled Interchange

I-95, I-495, I-395 all in one cozy little spot. I think there is a .com for this project (www.springfieldinterchange.com). I'll try not to mention the Wilson Bride project that's 5 miles away from Springfield.

-SUO

 

[Raspewtin]

The Big Dig really annoys me :frown: You guys have some good senators to get such a rediculously expensive project funded federally, that's all I have to say.

 

[Double Trouble]

If the people in the republic of taxachussetts are so miffed about this (and I know they are, some good friends of mine live there), why don't they do something about it and get rid of the government in place that's doing this to them?? Dumping Kennedy under the Ted Williams tunnel would be a good start......

 

[lavie]

Windogg said



<< I wish it were so but it's not the case since passenger vehicles outnumber commercial vehicles by a large margin >>




Why on earth did they (whoever is responsible in planning this chaos) not calculate the traffic flow before they build this tunnel?

So much for all this big schools (can you spell Harvard and M.I.T.) with Urban Planning Departments!

Duh.

Amy-chan

 

[ArkAoss]

Personally, I've never driven thru boston. I've ridden there. Buut was pretty impressed at the mess, and that was 4-5 yrs ago... But i dunno, I kinda find driving thru citys fun, like a big game. Would love to take a crack at driving thru some nice NYC traffic some day, Hartford traffic is pretty boring, once in a while you get a butt huggin mass driver that seems to think you need his car so far up your's he could pick your nose. but that's not as much fun as having to weave around plymoth minivan's loaded with 4 generations of some Indian family, Or a little 2 door nissan loaded with 7 or 8 spanish kids.

 

[Sundog]

OK, I leave for Boson in 2 hours. I guess I will avoid all tunnels!

Me thinks we will not drive much there after reading this!

 

[JasonG]

Actually, the price tag just went up to ~18 billion!

I can't believe that it could take so long to build a road underground. I'm convinced that it will take 20 years before they're done.

Personally, I think it would have made more sense to make the downtown area a car free zone like many european cities.

What we could have done with the money saved!

Boston is a incredible mess because of it and there is no end in sight to the madness.

Of course, they have to use union workers for everything which has probably doubled the price, due to corruption and overcharging.

I think I'll move to Calif. too.

Jason

 

[AndrewR]

Want to improve your State? Get rid of that fat windbag Kennedy who's been rotting in the Senate for a couple decades. I don't think people around the country would have a big problem with the Big Dig if Kennedy were floating around the Pacific in a small raft.

 

[Linflas]

<< I've got two words for you: Springfiled Interchange

I-95, I-495, I-395 all in one cozy little spot. I think there is a .com for this project (www.springfieldinterchange.com). I'll try not to mention the Wilson Bride project that's 5 miles away from Springfield.

-SUO >>


Did you know the supposed end result of this 10 year boondoggle is an average 8 seconds saved? I grew up in Springfield and it is sad to see what they have done to my home . Then again the DC area is #2 behind LA with the worst traffic in the country so what should we expect? We are the home of this uniquely designed interstate: I66 has 2 lanes each direction from DC to the Beltway, 3 lanes (plus the shoulder during rush hour) from the Beltway to Fairfax, and 4 lanes each direction from Fairfax to Manassas where it magically becomes 2 lanes each direction! So the further out you go the wider it gets until the magic end point. Go figure...

 

[Sundog]

Well, I arrive at 6:30pm- so hopefully the traffic won't be so bad by the time I actually get out of the airport.

 

[pmark]

With all of this bitching about traffic in Boston, it really isn't that bad. You just have to know where to go and what time to advoid certain areas. If you are going to the airport at peak times, just take the subway, it is a lot easier.

<< Why on earth did they (whoever is responsible in planning this chaos) not calculate the traffic flow before they build this tunnel? >>

What? You don't really think they didn't do this now do you? Boston has really grown in the last 10 years. This is part of the reason for the Big Dig. The traffic problems are really from the high number of people in the small area of Boston. The Big Dig is SUPPOSE to streamline this. But we shall see....

 

[JasonG]

Sorry Sundog but 6:30 isn't really late enough to make a difference.

You just really never know what it will be like. Sometimes the traffic isn't very backed up and sometimes it's not.

Once, around midnight on a saturday night, I was stuck in traffic at the tunnel for ~1 hour because they had closed a lane because of construction. I was so tired I almost fell asleep at the wheel. The traffic just crawled along and there's nowhere to even get off the road.

A few weeks ago I dropped someone off at the airport and there was a backup getting to the tunnel at 6 a.m. on a holiday. I was wondering how it could possibly be backed-up at the time until I got closer and saw that an over height truck was stopped before the entrance and almost completely blocking traffic.

No, pmark, the big dig won't help the traffic flow but at least it will be out of sight. The old artery looks like it's going to collapse any moment. Hopefully the big dig will be finished before it does.

Also, because of all the money going to the big dig, all the other roads and bridges around Boston get no repairs whatsoever. I cross the BU bridge (between Boston/Cambridge) everyday to go to work and you can literally see through some areas of the bridge. The concrete has just completely deteriorated. Pretty scary. I just hope it doesn't collapse when I'm on it...

Of course, now that it's spring, the potholes are multiplying faster than rabbits.

OK, enough complaining.

Jason

 

[pmark]

JasenG,

I just said that it is SUPPOSE to streamline traffic, whether it will succeed in it is another thing. The whole point of the poorject was the fix the traffic problems and move it out os sight.

Well the pot holes come from all of the snow plowing, but you're right, Boston has one of the worst road conditions. Don't worry about the BU bridge, its not going anywhere. There is enough paint on it from the crew teams to keep it up incase if it starts to break down.

 

[Sundog]

Wish me luck, I'm leaving for the airport in 5 minutes.

I'll see if the I can get internet access there!

 

[Buddhist]

&quot;Meanwhile, the rest fo us Massholes still have to struggle with the Sumner Tunnel. It takes give or take 3 hours to get to the airport between 6AM - 11AM and 3PM - 7PM. It can take even longer if you get lost in the unmarked labrynth of roads in the general area.&quot;

Errr...used to take me one hour, one hour and a half max (if traffic near BU and MGH)from downtown waltham...

-M.T.O