Breakdown Lane Use!!!

[spence]

Being from Iowa the notion of opening the breakdown lane is completely alien.

I'm not sure what's worse. The danger caused by breakdown lane drivers...or the danger caused by me trying to "catch" them at the 93/24 merge

-spence

[Clogston29]

The roads are over capacity (especially south of boston) and something needs to be done to alleviate potential gridlock so allowing breakdown lane travel during peak hours is done to increase capacity. On a two lane highway, allowing breakdown lane traffic increases the roadway capacity by 50% (not considering losses due to weaves and people just being afraid to drive with someone close to them) which is gonna save you a hell of a lot more than a few minutes per commute. The only other solutions are widening the roadway which everyone would bitch about paying for (well over $1 million dollars per mile not including bridge reconstruction which will run another couple of million dollars each) and siting in traffic during a few years during construction or simply doing nothing in which case everyone would bitch that the state is doing nothing to address the aging and outdated infrastructure. The state does not have the money to fix everything (and the feds aren't exactly throwing money our way after the big dig).

[Raven]

not everything is enforcible.....i guess

i remember living outside of Atlanta Georgia and each day on the commute home there was a huge line for the off ramp and these speed demons would come flying along at 70 - 75 mph in the middle lane then at the last second cut in line so to not have to wait like everyone else to finally get off the freeway. So thinking it had to be illegal i stopped and politely asked a police officer about this practice and he said it wasnt illegal but it wasnt the safest thing to be doing either......

so the next day, i was now a speed demon and you had to time it just right looking for that sweet spot of an opening or you had to blow on by and turn around at the next exit which was almost as fast. i feel bad for the truckers though because they outweigh the little passenger cars and crunch them like soda cans.

[BigFish]

Clogston...I think we all understand the reasoning behind opening the breakdown lanes....but thanks for drawing us the picture anyways! (Not snapping at you, just having a laugh at the 3rd grade description ) I am talking trading safety, which should be the higher priority, for saving a few minutes....thats all you are saving is minutes....and only a few at that.

You guys think that abomination called the HOV lane saves time???? El-Wrongo my friends! You ever see how that works??? You get in the HOV lane and you fly for a bit while the other lanes plod along.....then when the HOV lane ends, it spits you into the high speed lane of the traffic that is just plodding along......which only slows down the other traffic and only saves the HOV drivers a couple of minutes and costs the others more time!!!! If you think that HOV lane works and was worth the money to build it and maintain and operate it...you need to have your head examined!

[Diamond Tackle]

HOV lanes su**.
Larry,
Its obvious that the Beaurocrats that come up with this chit, have no clue and obviously never had any time and motion studies training. In theory you can make almost anything work on paper.
In theory when a light turns green and everyone hits the gas at the same time, there is no traffic. Unfortunately in the real world every persons reaction time is stacked up, and the last person in line is the one that bears the full brunt of it. Silly example, not really.
As you said Larry, if that HOV lane has an "end" somethere, then there is a bottleneck,and most if not all of the benefits are lost right there, it makes it even worse since the Flow has now been interrupted .Someone has to pay the cost in time that you just gained for those few minutes, UNLESS the hov lane ends AFTER the traffic jam,or there is a left lane exit, which is rare. Overall, no time has been saved,in fact your small gain cost several other people an even longer delay. In short, its a way to punish all those who are not carpooling, nothing more. And this is GOOD part of HOV lanes.
The really bad part is when its completely EMPTY(because people are complying with the carpool requirements) and the other lanes are JAMMED. Whoever came up whith HOV lanes should be whipped.

[BigFish]

Ahhh....Tinman....there is another out there who thinks as I........not sure if thats a good thing but it is just common sense isn't it? Man I would love to be pulling down the paycheck of some of these foolish engineers! (Is that the proper title for folks who design these ingenious portions of roadway?)

[luds]

Coming from the North Shore the car pool lane on 93 used to cut about 20-30 minutes off my commute daily? That's a big payoff in my opinion. I don't have the experience commuting from the south shore but If more folks used the shoulder I would think that it would free up the traffic a little. Instead we have a few people with the guts to drive in shoulder flying by endless cars standing in one place.

I live and work in hell now so I don't have to worry about it. You guys enjoy the traffic.

[labrax]

Route 128 where the breakdown lane use is permitted is a nightmare. I don't drive it anymore, but used to on a regular basis and think that it should not be used. Too many people use it as the high-speed lane (as has been mentioned before). It seems like it is the agressive drivers that use it the most. Trying to exit from the original slow lane to the off ramp is like Russian roulette. I always got a special kick when a Trooper would bag a couple of cars outside of the time when you could use the lane.