MA Route 3 HOT/Express Toll Lane Proposal

[deathtopumpkins]

So as some of you may know a private company recently proposed adding a HOT or Express Toll lane on part of Route 3 on the South Shore.

And now the Boston Globe's Nichole Davis picked up on the idea, and as usual no one seems to even vaguely understand the concept: http://www.boston.com/community/blogs/roads_and_rails/2013/01/thoughts_on_tolls_for_route_3_and_a_braga_bridge_forum.html

After initially referring to it as a "toll lane" she then for the whole rest of the post acts as if the plan was to toll all traffic on Route 3 and add a third general purpose lane. No wonder it's so hard to get anything like this done when no one even bothers to try and actually understand how something works before opposing it.

This Rob Hakala guy, however does have a good point about additional capacity on Route 3 not really helping since 93 is backed up anyway so traffic would still have nowhere to go.

[bob7374]

So as some of you may know a private company recently proposed adding a HOT or Express Toll lane on part of Route 3 on the South Shore.

And now the Boston Globe's Nichole Davis picked up on the idea, and as usual no one seems to even vaguely understand the concept: http://www.boston.com/community/blogs/roads_and_rails/2013/01/thoughts_on_tolls_for_route_3_and_a_braga_bridge_forum.html

After initially referring to it as a "toll lane" she then for the whole rest of the post acts as if the plan was to toll all traffic on Route 3 and add a third general purpose lane. No wonder it's so hard to get anything like this done when no one even bothers to try and actually understand how something works before opposing it.

This Rob Hakala guy, however does have a good point about additional capacity on Route 3 not really helping since 93 is backed up anyway so traffic would still have nowhere to go.

I agree that by adding lanes without increasing capacity elsewhere you are only helping speed traffic to already congested roadways. The blog did bring up an interesting proposal about a road directly connecting Routes 3 and 24 thus allowing traffic to bypass I-93 (aka 128). Good luck though in getting all the towns that would be affected to agree to it though.

As for some of the comments, why let the facts stand in the way when trying to make your point.

[PHLBOS]

The blog did bring up an interesting proposal about a road directly connecting Routes 3 and 24 thus allowing traffic to bypass I-93 (aka 128). Good luck though in getting all the towns that would be affected to agree to it though.

Would this bypass be roughly located between I-93 & 495?  It almost sounds like a piece of the long-dead Outer Belt proposal.  For those unfamiliar w/that proposal, it was planned to be a beltway situated in between MA 128 & I-495.  It never really got any traction and it was killed off circa 1975.

I saw a similar article in the Boston Herald when I was in the Boston area over a week ago.  While that article referred the I-95 Express Toll Lane project in Maryland (north of Baltimore) as a model for the Route 3 Project, it & the Globe link in this thread have both done a rather poor job (IMHO) of conveying that the tolls would only apply to those using the Toll Lanes.  The articles give the impression that tolls would apply to to everyone using all lanes.

[southshore720]

As a daily commuter on Rte 3, it would be nice if they opened the breakdown lane from Exit 15 to the split at Exit 20.  Sure, there would still be some congestion, but not as bad as it currently stands.

I would not favor an express toll lane...there is not enough room to build that.  Personally, I think Rte 24 is more in need of an overhaul than Rte 3.