Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Only in Massachusetts

When I worked in Boston they opened the last tunnels of the Big Dig, declared success and shorter commutes for all. My commute from the South Shore got longer. . . by about 15 minutes. As I see it that is about one minute more commute for each BILLION dollars they spent on this sink hole.


Now I commute out onto 128 and they have opened the Greenbush line to help ease traffic on Rt3 south of Boston. They spent something like $500 mil on it if memory serves correctly. So far it has been open about a week and guess what? My commute on Rt. 3 has gotten longer – yes, LONGER. So I guess all the money and court time was worth it, they made a difference. Like everything else this government does to make a difference it made things worse, not better. What do we need to do to get them to stop helping us? I am not sure we can take much more of there help.


As Ronald Reagan said – Then nine most terrifying words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”. I just wish we would stop proving him right. . ..


Only in Massachusetts can we add infrastructure to aid the commuter and make things take longer than they did before. Is this a wonderful state or what?

4 comments:

s_baghaii said...

Anyone who is working in civil engineering in Massachusetts has a great sense of humor.

Has the traffic increased due to the projects, or has it increased due to the number of people on the roads?

The Denver area was growing so they were constantly expanding things at a rate that barely kept up with the number of people moving in.

JD said...

Well, first anyone who was a civil engineer on the big dig should be summarily shot. Goes without saying.

As for the traffic increase I doubt that many extra people jumped on the road in a week to slow things down just cause the train started to run. It should have gone down for a little while you would think

As for the big dig, I would say traffic did not go up as more and more companies see the light and get out of Boston that means less folks going into Boston. That and the fact that traffic tended to break loose before you got into the tunnels they built when coming in from the south. . . .

Unknown said...

Which means. .. That civil engineers are designing solutions for past problems, not future ones. Therefore, there's very little chance of success. By the time MA gets around to approving it, the studies are probably more than 10 years old, and when the project is finished, the fixes are 15 years old. Do the math. :)

JD said...

which brings me back to my original thought for the civil engineers and planners for this state. . . Lift and nuke them from orbit, it is our only chance. . . .