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Waiting for Fast Lane
By scottso on Mon, 08/18/2008 - 10:54am
I've noticed that many of the digital signs on the Mass Pike recently started displaying a message similar to this:
"Get Fast Lane
Why wait in line?"
This is what the Exit 12 (Framingham) off-ramp typically looks like for me in the morning.
Two staffed booths with no line, one staffed booth with just a few cars, and the two Fast Lane booths with huge lines. Oh well.
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Comments
Things appear to be changing
The Allston/Cambridge toll plaza recently got a total redesign, which appears to make life easier for fast laners.
Here we go again
Let's get ready to rumble!
We have covered this ground a lot, but its still an issue worth discussing. As I said back in February, I'm a long time Fast Lane user and lover. My commute takes me (work to home) up 128/95, onto the Pike, and off at Allston/Brighton.
Now that they have closed down the cash lanes to 1 at the Weston toll plaza (from my approach), traffic is backed WAY up -- onto 128/95 and all the other roads trying to access the pike. For cash. For cash. Those of us trying to get to the Fast Lane can't even get to it, because all access points are choked up waiting for folks to stop and hand over their dirty dollar bills.
The same thing happens a lot at the Allston/Brighton toll plaza, especially on Sox game days. There's only 1 cash lane open, and the traffic piled up waiting to pay cash can stretch all the way back onto the Pike, completely blocking any access to the Fast Lanes.
Looking at the photo above, the problem does not seem to be directly related to the Fast Lane. The problem seems to be with the traffic pile up beyond the plaza. If traffic can't move anywhere after getting through the toll plaza itself, then the problem is neither the Fast Lane nor the Cash Only lanes.
So the wait isn't for the Fast Lane, its for the traffic beyond the plaza to clear. And if there's ever a wait, its because the Cash Only folks are jamming up all lanes getting to a toll plaza, and we Fast Lane users can't even get to the plaza.
I'm so glad we cleared this up. If it were up to me all toll plazas would be completely redesigned, and the Fast Lanes would be entirely segregated by jersey barriers. That way we Fast Lane users could fly through (at 65 MPH, of course), and anyone with a desire to use the germy, filthy dirty money of the MTA could wait in line. That's America!
Yep, redesign needed!
I don't have a Fast Lane, in part because I still get through the tolls fairly quickly without it (specifically, Weston to 128 south).
But now that I'm near the Framingham/Natick exit (instead of just the Framingham exit), well, it's a barrel of fun getting onto the turnpike from Rte. 30 west, because the ticket lane is on the extreme left, while I'm coming into the plaza from the extreme right, with almost no room for maneuvering. Almost as much fun as the old crossover from Leverett Circle to the Tobin Bridge back before the Big Dig.
Traffic pile-ups at the Allston-Brighton MassPike Tollbooth:
Oh, god, tell me about it! Getting to the tolls is not necessarily and always so bad, but once one gets beyond the tolls, particularly going onto the Somerville-Cambridge part of the exit, it's an unheavenly mess, and yeah, you're right..it's especially awful when there's a Red Sox game in town. There are times when I take the Allston-Brighton part of the exit and get onto Cambridge Street and go a different way home, which, while the traffic's awful going that way, isn't as taxing to the patience as the other, if one gets the drift.
It seems that in many of these tollbooth exits,
that cars are coming in from all different points, feeding into one point..i. e. the tollbooths, and that's what causes the pile-ups. It seems like it's endemic throuthout the state. The MassPike has an advantage in that they warn motorists well in advance of upcoming exits and is more of a straightaway highway, but the tollbooth intersections themselves are poorly designed. Yes, it's agreed that redesigning is needed.
Toll lanes can indeed be confusing
I agree with you completely - I never understood why the Fast Lanes weren't completely segregated from the cash lanes. In Northern Virginia on the Dulles Tollway, that's how they do it. Same with the Dallas Toll Road and some others in the NY metro area.
Very frequently, I see non-regular Mass Pike users confused about which lane to use. I assume this happens because the signage isn't terribly clear, especially if you've never heard of Fast Lane before.
Also agree that there's a need to alleviate congestion before and beyond toll plazas!
In new york you have to go 5 mph through tolls
You cross into PA or New Jersey you can cruise the speed limit through it? Why do I have to slow down in New York.. you tell me.
Not every toll allows you to cruise through ...
There are some on the Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway where you can go through the toll booth at the speed limit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-ZPass
There's plenty where you have to slow down, and it would be great if they could be converted to allow faster speeds.