State Rep. Adrian Madaro (D-East Boston) is pissed off at the way his neighborhood's roads have become gridlocked after MassDOT removed the Sumner Tunnel toll plaza and modified the approaches to it a couple weeks ago.
In a letter to state Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, he writes that rather than the "safer, smoother and more efficient commute" promised by MassDOT:
The new design has created traffic backups unseen in East Boston since the pre-Ted Williams Tunnel days. In fact, the current traffic is even worse. Beyond the impact on commuters, this increase in neighborhood and tunnel traffic has dangerous implications for emergency vehicles that cannot get through the gridlock.
In the redesign, traffic impacts to the community were not fully considered. On a daily basis, residential streets in East Boston are entirely congested, including streets that never experienced traffic before. While the transition to all-electronic tolls appears to have improved traffic flow in other areas throughout the State, this particular redesign has resulted in a tremendous step backwards. Simply, East Boston residents deserve better.
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Comments
I take public transit to get
By faegirl
Wed, 05/24/2017 - 8:10pm
I take public transit to get to work, but if I'm going North, then the tunnel is the easiest way to get that way. Not everyone is going downtown, either. Some are working in Medford or Somerville or heading towards another highway north.
"Simply, East Boston
By dvg
Wed, 05/24/2017 - 9:53am
"Simply, East Boston residents deserve better." says the State Rep. But are they willing to pay for it? With the resident discounted toll rate of $0.20 per crossing (less than 1/10th of a subway fare), you may get what you pay for...
Not that I'm a fan of
By anon
Wed, 05/24/2017 - 12:02pm
Not that I'm a fan of resident discounts, but...it's not at all the case that the state had a solution to this problem, but didn't build it because they lacked the funding because of the resident tunnel discount.
That's not the point. The
By DTP
Wed, 05/24/2017 - 12:44pm
That's not the point. The point isn't the lost revenue because of the resident discount, it's the fact that the toll for Eastie residents is less than a tenth of the T fare. Take that away, and a lot more of them would choose the Blue Line, and traffic would be a lot better.
Assuming everyone driving
By anon
Wed, 05/24/2017 - 1:11pm
Assuming everyone driving from Eastie works downtown / on or near the T...which, of course, they don't.
If they are paying $20 a day
By Steeve
Wed, 05/24/2017 - 2:02pm
If they are paying $20 a day for parking, is an extra $1.10 a day really going to push them toward a more fiscally sound choice of commuting?
Terrible argument
By ChrisInEastie
Wed, 05/24/2017 - 12:28pm
How many other neighborhoods in the city cost $1.50 (or whatever the new rate is for non rez), or require you to drive through 3 other towns just to get back to the same city you started in, just to leave and come back to?
Housing costs used to make the tradeoff more than worth it, not the case now. And many of the people coming through are from the North Shore–residents have noted seeing a lot of non-resident transponders in backed up traffic on local residential streets.
Form as many people as you
By MikeA
Wed, 05/24/2017 - 2:38pm
Form as many people as you can , Be heard, Take Action, Make Signs, and start protesting this Saturday morning on the footbridge and areas around the Sumner Tunnel.
This will get the higher ups at Mass Dot to have a sit down with the residents of Eastie and discuss what needs to be done to correct the traffic patterns leading into the Sumner Tunnel.
Form as many people as you
By MikeA
Wed, 05/24/2017 - 2:43pm
Form as many people as you can , Be heard, Take Action, Make Signs, and start protesting this Saturday morning on the footbridge and areas around the Sumner Tunnel.
This will get the higher ups at Mass Dot to have a sit down with the residents of Eastie and discuss what needs to be done to correct the traffic patterns leading into the Sumner Tunnel.
Protesting will also get the attention of the media.
Why should Eastie residents
By faegirl
Wed, 05/24/2017 - 8:19pm
Why should Eastie residents pay for a tunnel in our neighborhood to get into our own city and not people coming in from 93 and 95?
Because tunneling under the
By anon
Thu, 05/25/2017 - 8:16am
Because tunneling under the ocean costs more.
Because that tunnel was more
By DTP
Thu, 05/25/2017 - 8:59am
Because that tunnel was more expensive to build, and is more expensive to maintain, than I-93 (outside of the Central Artery).
Because you live across the harbor from the city.
Because that tunnel, and that toll, has been there for 83 years, and you knew it was there when you moved to Eastie. It's not like this is some new injustice being foisted on you.
The traffic on 1A now has a
By Tyler
Wed, 05/24/2017 - 9:40pm
The traffic on 1A now has a choke point where only one lane of traffic can now go through. Within that one lane of traffic many drivers get confused (lots of visitors coming from the airport) and believe that the light applies to them.
Because the traffic is so backed up from the airport many drivers from the airport are resorting to taking back streets. From the airport it's gridlock all the way back to the terminals. That is why local East Boston streets have become so bad.
How much of this comes from
By Rob
Thu, 05/25/2017 - 11:08am
How much of this comes from snarl that is the city/developer construction over on Meridian St (is that called Central Square)? I drove through there the other day - some genius had installed a stop sign at a yellow flashing signal.
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