Infrastructure and Traffic Congestion

A few weeks ago, on successive days, I came across two articles which got me thinking about highways and public transportation. The first was focused on the need for infrastructure repair and maintenance to reduce traffic congestion. Certainly, when parts of roads and highways become unusable because of deterioration, it increases congestion, and increasing amounts of time are wasted by drivers stuck in traffic. As I read it, however, it seemed to me that it completely ignored a much more basic and valuable solution to the problem of congestion: public transportation.

During my lifetime, we have seen a repeated cycle of building highways and having them filled beyond capacity, then enlarging them and having them filled again. It seems that for most peoplethe apparent convenience of being able to go from Point A to Point B in one's own vehicle outweighs the inconvenience of being caught in traffic jams. While the problem is worst around cities during rush hour on weekdays, there can also be significant delays on weekends, especially holiday weekends. Here in Massachusetts such delays occur during the summer as people go to and from Cape Cod as well as resort areas of Maine and New Hampshire. In October, foliage attracts heavy traffic. During these times highways on which traffic normally flows unimpeded become congested. Two years ago, something of the sort happened to me as I went to western Massachusetts for a weekend of concerts at Tanglewood. The trip, which should take under two hours each way, was slowed by congestion and took more like four hours each way.

The usual solution has been to widen the roads, creating additional travel lanes. But it seems to me that it would be highly preferable to provide public transportation, which could remove large numbers of cars from the highways, as well as from urban roads. It would have to be capable of reaching the destinations of most travelers in a time which is competitive with a trip by car. For this, a graduated system would be needed. First there should be high speed rail roughly paralleling the interstate highways. These could get people from one pint to another significantly faster than they could by car. Stops could be at major cities and at junctions of interstates. From these stops there can be high speed rail along intersecting interstates and local rail to other destinations. From the stations subways could cover some metropolitan areas and a network of buses would reach outlying areas.

For example, a high speed railroad roughly following Interstate 90 would travel three times as fast as cars on the highway, losing some of the advantage when the train made stops. On the other hand passengers would not have to take breaks to refuel, refresh, and eat. Near Springfield, a high speed line would run north toward Montreal and south to Hartford and then to a connection with the Boston-NYC line. A traveler to Tanglewood could connect in Lee with a local railroad to Pittsfield (and points north. Buses could cover the run from Pittsfield to Lenox. A 2 1/2 drive from Boston to Lee could be covered by high speed rail in about 1 1/4 hours. Even if the time thus saved (or somewhat more) were taken up by local transportation, it should be highly attractive not to have to deal with traffic, but to be able to do other things, such as read, during the trip.

Another example: a trip from Boston, MA, to Butler, PA.  An 8 1/2 hour, 540 mile, trip by car to Erie, PA, on Interstate 90 should require no more than 3 hours by high speed rail — saving 5 hours. If a high speed train wouldn't stop between Erie and Pittsburgh, a local train to somewhere around Route 422 ought to be able to get there in 2 1/2 hours (a bus would take longer), and a local bus from there to Butler might need maybe 1/2 hour. Mapquest estimates under 2 hours Erie-Butler by car. So by car from Boston to Butler via interstates could take over 10 hours, whereas with high speed rail to Erie and other public systems from Erie, it would be more like 6 hours overall — without the hassle of driving.

These scenarios depend for their attractiveness on having both high speed and local transportation running frequently enough that trips can be accomplished in an overall time that is not much longer than travel by car. Certainly, there are places so remote and lightly populated that public transportation would not be feasible. People would need to drive at least part of the way (possibly a rental car from the end of the line). But if systems could be put in place which could entice even half of the drivers off the roads it would obviate the need for road and highway expansion as well as cutting the exhaust emissions by nearly half.

The second article dealt with the laws restricting the imposition of tolls on federal highways. If tolls could be raised on the highways so that the cost of a trip by car were comparable to the public transportation fares, that would overcome an incentive to drive which is created by the subsidy taxpayers give to highway construction. If users ultimately pay the expenses of public systems, users should also pay the costs of highway construction and maintenance.

Good Samaritans/Muslims(?)

Yesterday, as I was on my way to an appointment with my dentist's cleaning woman (hygienist), my car quit on me. It seemed to be a problem in the fuel line. The engine would start for a split second and then die. I was in the main lane coming into a busy intersection. I turned on my flashers and tried to call AAA. Unfortunately, my cell phone battery had no charge. Meanwhile cars were coming up close behind me, and it took them some time to realize the situation and go around me. I was wondering if my car would be rear-ended before the phone battery was sufficiently charged for me to make the call.

After I had been there a few minutes, two big men with curly black beards and olive skin approached and offered to push my car to the side of the road. After they did so, they invited me to wait in their barber shop, outside of which mu car had stalled. When I told them of the problem with my phone, the cashier in the shop let me borrow her phone. I made the call, and the tow truck arrived in a few minutes. I thanked my Good Samaritans and gave them $20, which they tried to refuse, but I tucked it into the pocket of one of their aprons.

Some sites — reposted by friends on Facebook and people I follow on Twitter — claim that all Muslims hate non-Muslims. It's an absurd idea, which incidents like this disprove. I'm reasonably confident my helpers were Muslim, and nothing compelled them to help me, but they freely chose to do so, possibly even motivated by their religion.

Sequel  I had my car towed to the service station I use. The man who knows how to use the diagnostic computer was out with the flu or something of the sort. The other guy hoped he'd be back today. So once more I used the bus to get to the subway so I could get to Boston that evening, and once more, it was satisfactory.

Today, I got a call from the service station about 12:30 p.m., telling me that my car was ready. It turns out the problem wasn't the fuel delivery system. It needed a tune up: new spark plugs and wires. There was also a mouse nest in the air filter, so the filter had to be replaced. Parts, $146.00, labor 160.00, tax on parts, 9.25; and I'm on my way.

Losing Auto Registration, Riding the Bus

On Wednesday I opened a letter from my automobile insurance agency and found a notice that the insurance company had cancelled my policy for non-payment of premium* and notified the Registrar of Motor Vehicles. This had two, related consequences: I could no longer drive my car because it was unregistered and uninsured; and I had to turn in my registration plates to the Registry.

The first consequence was going to be difficult to work around. I was planning to go to Boston that evening to have dinner at Scollay Square Restaurant (and read some of Water for Elephants in honor of Seth while there) and to attend a concert at the Harvard Musical Association. Instead of driving to the subway station, I'd have to take the bus. Eventually, I printed out a copy of the bus schedule, and realized that by the time I could get to Boston, it would be too late to have dinner and get to the concert. So I opted for dinner. I found that by bus t takes about 20 minutes longer to get to and from the subway station as it does by car. And of course, one can't just hop on the bus anytime as one can get into a car and go. You have to be at the bus stop when the bus gets there (hopefully on time), and on the way home you have to wait for the bus again. So overall, the commuting time is probably 1/2 hour longer each way. The good news is that with my "senior citizen" discount, the fare is only 85¢ per trip. So instead of paying $5.00 to park in the garage, I only had to pay $1.70 for the bus. And the additional travel time can be used reading. I might add that the ride itself was not unpleasant. When the time comes that I can't drive, if I can still walk to the bus stop, it won't be too bad.

The second consequence was far worse. That registration number had been in the family for years, probably since the 1920's. In Massachusetts, registration numbers of five or fewer digits (and no letters or other graphics) are highly prized. Mine had originally belonged to a female cousin of my father's, and she was probably the first person to whom it was issued, I'd guess in the 1930's. She had no children, and when she died, she left it to my father. When he died, my mother got it, and when she stopped driving in 1997, I got her car, along with the registration number, and have kept both until now. Losing the number would be highly embarrassing.

Of course, I called the agency as soon as I read their letter to see if there was any way to save the number. They called me back the following morning, and it turned out that if I paid the remaining balance on the insurance policy, the company would reinstate the policy, and would notify the Registry and I'd get to keep the number. It was all accomplished over the phone and by e-mail, and by 9:30 a.m. I could be on the road again. Despite the fact that it cost me $3.30 more to park in the garage than to go by bus to the subway, I took my car for my trip to Boston for the symphony concert on Thursday.


* At the end of December, I had paid 1/4 of the premium for the year, so I figured I was good through March and I wasn't particularly concerned when I got a bill for a small amount in January, and I never even opened the envelope which arrived in mid-February, figuring it was just a reminder. It turns out it was the statutory notice of cancellation, which has to be issued 20 days before the policy is actually cancelled. As it happened, I paid several bills on Tuesday and in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, and the insurance bill was one I almost got to. Of course, by then, it would have been too late. Although I didn't get the letter until Wednesday, the revocation actually happened on Monday.

The agent I spoke to on Thursday said I could pay either the full balance or the minimum due. Of course, not wanting to give myself the chance of missing another payment, I chose to pay the full balance. So now I'm good through the end of the year, if I don't forget to renew the actual registration, which expires at the end of May.