What’s wrong with our highways?

I live in northern New Jersey with my wife in a small town surrounded by woods, hills, streams and lakes.  Not the typical New Jersey people are accustomed to, but that’s why I love surprising first time visitors to the Garden State.

Once a year my wife and I drive to Old Orchard Beach, Maine to visit my in-laws who make an annual pilgrimage from Quebec to Old Orchard Beach.  Apparently it’s been a long tradition for people from Quebec to spend their construction vacation in Maine.  If you look at the map it’s actual the closest beach for most people living in Quebec, which is why half the population in Maine during the summer speaks French.

Eisenhower Interstate System

If you mapquest the drive from northern New Jersey to Old Orchard Beach it will tell you that it’s only a 5 hour drive.  However, over the years I’ve learned that it takes me at least 7 hours to get there, unless I’m willing to get up at 2am, in which case I could make it in 4 ½ hours.  Why does it take that long?  It’s because the Eisenhower Interstate System was built for traffic in the 50s, not for traffic in 2011.  It’s frustrating as hell to be stuck in traffic, pretty much all the way up.

So what’s the solution?

I’ve been telling you on my blogs that we need to at least triple the transportation budget in conjunction with spending cuts and revenue increases to balance our federal budget, but also to keep America working and in order for America to maintain its number one status as an economic power in the world.

So what’s wrong with the highways and what can we do to fix it?

1) Lack of lanes

If you’ve ever driven through Connecticut between I-684 and Hartford you will understand my frustration with having a highway that only has 2 lanes on each size.  It should be against federal law to have an interstate designation if you only have 2 lanes on each side.

Truck traffic alone slows these lanes down, so for automobiles it’s frustrating that there’s not a designated car lane, which you can have in the left lane if you had 3 lanes going in each direction

Eminent Domain is warranted here.  Highways should have a minimum of 3 lanes going in each direction and wherever traffic numbers are too high it should be increased to at least 4 lanes

2) Ramps need to be doubled/tripled in size

One of the most frustrating parts of a traffic slowdown is when traffic backs up for a mile or more because you’re leaving one highway to go onto another highway

US Interstates

A minimum of 2 lanes should be mandatory for ramps connecting highways at intersections, and one of the ramp lanes should be transitioned into a regular lane, not a merging lane

This would keep traffic flowing freely

3) Enforcement of passing on the left

I just came back from a business trip in England.  I’ve also had the luxury of having driven on the Autobahn in Germany and on the Autostrasse in Italy.  The beauty about highway driving in those countries: peddle to the metal in the left lane at 100mph+

The problem of doing that in the U.S. (besides running the risk of getting a speeding ticket); idiots not knowing traffic rules that clog up the left lane by going the speed limit without passing anyone

I believe I was given the finger by at least 6 people on my way up to Maine, when I was able to go 90mph on short stretches, but then got stuck behind some %@#$% idiot in front of me

Instead of police enforcing speed tickets they should instead focus on ticketing people in the left lane that do not pass people!  The ticket should be at least $300 and hopefully that will send a strong message to get out of my lane…

4) Speed up tolls

It’s nice to have an EZ-Pass in the Northeast, because it allows you to go through toll-boots without having to stop, or so the thinking goes.  The problem is that most toll plazas are still set up in such way that a car will need to slow down to 15 mph in order for the meter to pick up your pass reading

Install high speed systems at every toll boots, so that traffic doesn’t have to slow down

5) Wider emergency lanes

3 times I got stuck in traffic because a friendly state trooper had pulled someone over or he/she was assisting an unlucky motorist with a flat tire, etc.

The problem is that it slows traffic down, because safety is important of course and nobody should be hitting the broken down motorist or the trooper trying to assist

Wider emergency lanes would help alleviate the situation as it would give other motorist more leeway with passing the emergency vehicles and traffic (although slowed down) could still move at a relative descent speed, 50 mph versus 15 mph for example

6) Block view

We don’t like to admit to it, but everyone likes to look at someone else’s misfortunes such as a bad traffic accident.  It’s human nature to slow down and get a quick peek at those unlucky people

The problem is that it slows down traffic, even for traffic going in the opposite direction

The solution?  Put a barrier in between, high enough that car drivers cannot see the other side of the road, which should help keep traffic moving during accidents on the opposite side

Now if we could only cut spending by about $500 billion per year, increase revenues by another $500 billion per year and then spend $250 billion per year on transportation then I can get to Maine in 4 hours or less next summer…

Share your thoughts?