IN AUGUST 2019, the Baker administration released a study on traffic congestion that said the problem had worsened significantly over the previous five years and the state was nearing a tipping point.
”Many parts of our roadway system, particularly in eastern Massachusetts, are working as hard as possible every day and are therefore easily tipped into significant congestion by relatively minor occurrences,” the study said, referring to crashes (even small ones), bad weather, or a work zone. “When this happens, travel times not only lengthen but become inconsistent and unreliable, making it difficult for motorists to plan their days and their lives. Congestion has become as much a quality of life problem as it is a transportation or economic problem.”
Seven months after the congestion report’s release, Covid arrived. Traffic declined, drivers increased their speed, and congestion slipped into the rearview mirror. But now, with Covid no longer a major concern, congestion is back. Traffic patterns may have changed as hybrid work gained traction, but the situation on the state’s roads and highways is as bad as ever.
“This year, traffic levels will exceed 2019 levels,” said Jonathan Gulliver, the state’s highway commissioner. He said congestion is worst on Wednesdays, Thursday mornings, and Friday afternoons, and notes Mondays and Tuesdays are hit or miss.
Gulliver said state officials do everything they can to keep traffic moving, but it’s no easy task given the large number of vehicles on the road. “Even if you deal with a crash very quickly, it’s going to have a residual effect that’s going to take a long time to resolve,” he said.
Incidents of severe roadway congestion often receive little publicity if there are no injuries. At 8:25 a.m. on September 17, a tractor-trailer, a box truck, and a sport utility vehicle were involved in a three-vehicle crash eastbound on the Massachusetts Turnpike near I-495. No injuries were reported but all three vehicles needed to be towed. Two lanes had to be closed for hours. Traffic backed up for at least five miles as drivers inched along.
Told about that incident, Gulliver said it was nothing compared to an accident – also on the Turnpike – that occurred two days later involving several trucks and other vehicles on both the eastbound and westbound sections of the Turnpike. A tweet at the time from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation offered few details but said the westbound section of the Turnpike had to be closed.
These incidents were unusual because they caused massive traffic tie-ups, but Gulliver said smaller hiccups are fairly commonplace. “Accidents happen all the time,” he said. “And one incident creates a cascade throughout the system.”
The MBTA has been grappling with the same sort of challenges – old subway vehicles prone to breakdowns, track in disrepair, and infrastructure that needs updating. General Manager Phillip Eng has spent the last year trying to upgrade the subway track system to eliminate hundreds of slow zones. His hope is that once service improves and becomes more reliable, riders will return.
“What matters most to people is not how long it takes to get someplace on a typical day but how long it can take on a bad travel day,” said the 2019 congestion report. “Once their commute is unreliable, people have to plan not around the average commute, but around the worst delays. That means arranging daycare and other work and family plans on the basis of that one in every 5- or 10-day spike, not the average daily commute. Our goal as we tackle congestion must therefore be to eliminate as much of the variability as possible that now makes it so difficult for people to predict how long it will take them to get anywhere, for both transit and automobile users. By identifying and fixing the things that make the system so unreliable, we can make travel more consistent and predictable, even if not necessarily much faster or shorter.”
