Does someone have a map showing the new traffic flow? The way I'm reading it makes no sense whatsoever... (And of course, it's entirely possible that it actually makes no sense whatsoever.)

It makes sense

By Jonathan on Fri, 04/05/2013 - 6:30pm.

There's a traffic circle there. The overpass just lets drivers on Memorial skip the circle. It's going to suck, granted, but it does make sense.

Yeah, got it now

By Lecil on Fri, 04/05/2013 - 8:21pm.

I saw Brookline mentioned and totally misconstrued what traffic was going to do. Just skirting around does make sense, though it'll no doubt cause all sorts of back-ups.

Ancient texts warned of this

By rsybuchanan on Fri, 04/05/2013 - 6:52pm.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh MassDOT R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

Can you feel the jibbering madness starting to take hold yet?

Overpass bulge

By Ian Lamont on Fri, 04/05/2013 - 7:00pm.

Does this mean they'll finally fix the bulging metal plate on the westbound lane of the overpass? Hit that thing fast enough, I'm sure you can get a little air ...

Speeding problem here!!

By anonSpeed on Fri, 04/05/2013 - 7:29pm.

On this segment of Memorial, the speed limit is 20mph. (check the signs next time!) Hard to get air going that speed.

The gas is the one on the right

By Thanks for the traffic jam ... on Fri, 04/05/2013 - 10:55pm.

If you drive 20 going over that bridge then don't complain if you get rear ended.

Hopefully they do fix that jump, I mean bump.

Thanks for being a Masshole

By anon on Fri, 04/05/2013 - 11:09pm.

Thanks for being a Masshole and speeding. Hopefully you won't hurt anyone else when you finally wreck going driving on a road faster than it was safely designed for.

Design speed?

By anon on Fri, 04/05/2013 - 11:17pm.

When I was 18, the speed limit on that flyover was 45mph!

That's the design speed!

The reduce speed to 20 sign is the direct result of the deterioration of the structure.

Yeah.

By anon on Sat, 04/06/2013 - 7:58am.

And the deterioration of the structure is a direct result of vehicles traveling faster than intended.

I love how the Internet

By JCK on Sat, 04/06/2013 - 12:26pm.

I love how the Internet brings out the speeding scolds.

You should do 20 over that bridge

By Will LaTulippe on Sat, 04/06/2013 - 2:31am.

Not driving, but rather that's how fast you should jump from it to your death.

Oh wow, the timing

By anonx3 on Fri, 04/05/2013 - 11:13pm.

They're closing it just in time for the first Red Sox home game? Wow, traffic this summer is going to be something that rhymes with a 'binormous musterpluck'

No better in October

By anon on Fri, 04/05/2013 - 11:23pm.

This way, it will be finished in time for the Head of the Charles.

Already a mess for the next two years

By JulieP on Fri, 04/05/2013 - 11:24pm.

The work being done on Western Ave is already creating a huge headache where it intersects with Memorial Drive, and that's scheduled to go on for the next two years. Traffic regularly backs up towards that overpass even during off-peak hours. Fantastic timing!

If you had to close it some time... this is the right time

By BlackKat on Sat, 04/06/2013 - 9:33am.

Considering summer is coming, and the colleges surround there will be closing, and people will be riding bikes or vacationing more, and construction being infinitely easier when its not cold or snowing, it is as perfect as timing for roadwork can get.

Traffic in this area

By Kathode on Sat, 04/06/2013 - 10:22am.

Peaks just about now, due to good weather, more tourists and Red Sox games. The BU Bridge rotary is always a gridlock during evening rush hour, especially since the Cambridge to Boston side of the bridge was reduced to one car lane to make room for a bike lane, backing lots of traffic into the rotary. Expect major clusterf*ck. Mass Ave, here I come.

Bike lane didn't reduce the

By anon on Sat, 04/06/2013 - 3:24pm.

Bike lane didn't reduce the bridge capacity. It is still two lanes at each end and had been functioning with one lane in each direction for several years during reconstruction. The issue with the BU bridge and traffic is the giant clusterfuck of an intersection with Commonwealth Avenue. The signal system there is ancient and the substandard roadway design dates back to the construction of the Mass Pike.

Bridge used to have

By Kathode on Sun, 04/07/2013 - 8:37am.

Two lanes to access bridge from either side. Now, there is only one lane to access bridge on either side. More backup ensues including gridlocked rotary on Cambridge side. Not good planning.

You could only get on from one lane at a time

By SwirlyGrrl on Mon, 04/08/2013 - 10:39am.

What the bike lane did was remove about 10 or 15 car lengths of sitting in traffic space on the bridge. That's it. Your assumptions of what determines capacity are way off here - you have to look at what is called a RATE LIMITING FACTOR, something all young engineers used to be taught. The rate limiting factor is the STOPLIGHT at the other end, not how many cars can sit motionless on the bridge.

I take it you are not technically employed at MIT?

The inlet was only effectively one lane anyway - even if you could pick which lane you would jam up in - because the input to that two lanes was only one lane.

That area has been a mess since at least the mid-80s - the bike lane didn't change that, other than to make it safe for people to not drive. Blaming an intractable backup on the bike lane is foolish. Traffic happens because there are too many cars for a roadway system - period.

The stop light at the end of

By anon on Mon, 04/08/2013 - 10:54am.

The stop light at the end of the bridge (assuming a constant car velocity) allows a certain number of cars to pass per unit time per lane. Doubling the number of lanes would therefore double the flux in this simple scenario. To put it another way, while the light is green, cars can go. If there's one lane, you get 1x cars per green light. Two lanes means 2x cars per green light. The true rate limiting factor here is the maximum flux across the bridge when the light is green.

Your point about the inlets to the bridge, however, still stands. As far as I can remember it's always been just a single lane coming out of the rotary and off of Comm Av... though I could be wrong about that. Was it a 2-lane inlet on Comm Av before they built that weird divider thing that blocks off the right turn lane from the traffic going straight westbound?

--technically employed at MIT

And ...

By SwirlyGrrl on Mon, 04/08/2013 - 12:01pm.

Consider that gridlock also stalls traffic during rush hour - not just box blocking, but the inability of roadways beyond the green light to take as many vehicles as could theoretically transit the green light.

I suspect there was a second motivation for the bridge itself to be down to one lane - reducing the weight of vehicles on on older structure. (Those lanes were nowhere near wide enough for two buses to pass in tandem anyway).

Simple solution to this

By Don't drive on Sat, 04/06/2013 - 8:51am.

Simple solution to this problem.

Sure, that'll

By Kathode on Sat, 04/06/2013 - 10:25am.

Work for everyone....not.

Well then,

By anon on Sat, 04/06/2013 - 12:27pm.

People who can avoid driving through that area should do so, so those who have to drive for whatever reason can get through the construction easier. Makes sense to me.

Consider your other options

By anon on Sat, 04/06/2013 - 1:53pm.

Car drivers are not entitled to a fast commute experience just because cars are capable of highway speeds.

If you drive in this area, you get what you get and you either have to find new routes, go multi-modal (combine bike and car or car and transit or bike and transit,etc.), or otherwise adapt when things change (which they really haven't - I used to live in the area years ago and even then it was a mess at any and every time of year). Also, lets see a citation on "more backup since the bike lane" because all that bike lane cost anyone was stuck-in-traffic storage for about 10 cars.

Or, maybe, realize that the root cause of any traffic clusterfuck is too many people who insist on driving their cars into a clusterfuck day in and day out just like you do. No one raindrop thinks it caused the flood, right?

Yeah, because waiting for the

By anon on Tue, 04/09/2013 - 1:01pm.

Yeah, because waiting for the 47 bus will help me get from Medford to JP in less than 2 hours. And home again after 12:30 am.

Next time, I'll do the right thing and never leave the house.

The overpass must be ready to

By anon on Sat, 04/06/2013 - 7:23pm.

The overpass must be ready to fall down. Mass roads are suffering from, what, 15+ years of deferred maintenance due to the the Big Dig? Expect much more of this in the years to come.

Anyone remember the I-93 ramp that was shut down on the Friday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend for repairs?

As for the alternate routes:

On Saturday evening, it took about 20 minutes to go the 3 blocks from from Mass Ave/Beacon to Mass Ave/Newbury.

Western Avenue is hosed because of construction.

Last time I checked, the JFK Street bridge was down to 1 lane. (How's it doing these days?)

Land Boulevard is a mess near the Galleria.

Good thing the Longfellow is in such good shape, and can pick up the slack.

Memorial Drive overpass by BU Bridge to be shut for six months, starting Sunday

Comments

And I thought that area

Ouch!

Wait, what?