by mxdata
Both the state and the city have "missed the boat" a number of times, and it wasn't just in letting the whaling ship and the battleship get away from New Bedford.
Route 140 is turning into a major commuter corridor, and the four lane stretch of Route 24 between the 140 merge south of Taunton and the Route 24/I-495 cloverleaf badly needs to be increased to six lanes, if commuter rail waits much longer. In the morning northbound, and the evening southbound, Route 140 traffic is probably more dense than I-195. The New Bedford traffic southbound backs up on Route 24 at the 140 exit in the afternoon, creating a serious problem and accident potential, but the state has yet to address this.
The City of New Bedford is also almost incredibly slow at making corrections and improvements for the increasing traffic volume. Take the traffic mess on Brownell Avenue, for example. In the afternoon between 4PM and 5:30 you typically have eight to ten blocks of cars lined up on the street waiting for the light at Route 6 and 140, idling, wasting fuel, and producing pollution. The city owns the land on the east side of the road, part of Buttonwood Park, and could easily put an extra lane in there to flow two lanes north onto 140 instead of just one lane. It would probably cost less to do than putting up one of these fancy "You are entering the Buzzards Bay watershed" signs that pollute our view of the scenery.
With Dartmouth, Westport, Mattapoisett, and Marion all building in population rapidly, the area and the traffic are only going to get worse. It would be refreshing to see some realistic thinking applied to the commuter rail problem, rather than having it tied up in requirements to dig out multi million dollar superfund cleanup sites and support tourist attractions that may never get built.
By the way, on the subject of use of tax dollars, has anybody else noticed the couple of signs on I-195 that tell you how far it is to "Braga Bridge". The Braga Bridge is a structure, not a town or city, and isn't named on most maps. If you know what it is, you probably live in the area and have a pretty good idea how far away it is, so you don't need a sign to tell you. Your tax dollars at work.....duh!
Route 140 is turning into a major commuter corridor, and the four lane stretch of Route 24 between the 140 merge south of Taunton and the Route 24/I-495 cloverleaf badly needs to be increased to six lanes, if commuter rail waits much longer. In the morning northbound, and the evening southbound, Route 140 traffic is probably more dense than I-195. The New Bedford traffic southbound backs up on Route 24 at the 140 exit in the afternoon, creating a serious problem and accident potential, but the state has yet to address this.
The City of New Bedford is also almost incredibly slow at making corrections and improvements for the increasing traffic volume. Take the traffic mess on Brownell Avenue, for example. In the afternoon between 4PM and 5:30 you typically have eight to ten blocks of cars lined up on the street waiting for the light at Route 6 and 140, idling, wasting fuel, and producing pollution. The city owns the land on the east side of the road, part of Buttonwood Park, and could easily put an extra lane in there to flow two lanes north onto 140 instead of just one lane. It would probably cost less to do than putting up one of these fancy "You are entering the Buzzards Bay watershed" signs that pollute our view of the scenery.
With Dartmouth, Westport, Mattapoisett, and Marion all building in population rapidly, the area and the traffic are only going to get worse. It would be refreshing to see some realistic thinking applied to the commuter rail problem, rather than having it tied up in requirements to dig out multi million dollar superfund cleanup sites and support tourist attractions that may never get built.
By the way, on the subject of use of tax dollars, has anybody else noticed the couple of signs on I-195 that tell you how far it is to "Braga Bridge". The Braga Bridge is a structure, not a town or city, and isn't named on most maps. If you know what it is, you probably live in the area and have a pretty good idea how far away it is, so you don't need a sign to tell you. Your tax dollars at work.....duh!
