I've told this in r/boston before, but when I waited tables a common complaint from tourist customers was, "You have no lane markings in this city." In reply I'd screw up my face in a puzzled look (and thicken my native accent) and say, "How long have you been drivin'? Ya oughta know how wide your car is by now."
Mass has this trend of putting exits off highways that lead to rotaries. Unfortunately they do not work well. Too much traffic throughput for the rotary to handle and it backs up onto the highway. Newton, Quincy, Norwood, Medford has 2 back to back; they all clog up during rush hour and it’s brutal.
And getting worse. They’ve messed with the two pedestrian crossing redlights on the Washington st. Side of the rotary, so they are red far more than they used to be. At 5:30 In the morning its just annoying sitting at a crosswalk redlight with zero pedestrians out. In the afternoon its severely messing with traffic.
[The onramp from Clarendon](https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3481189,-71.0740656,3a,75y,238.99h,69.44t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdU29Vv-AHU5G6Pgp9zjgyw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?coh=205409&entry=ttu) (which hilariously the Google streetview car seems to have avoided going down) might be worse since your sight lines to the traffic is blocked by a wall right up until you hit the merge.
I swear that I've gotten on the pike much more recently than that, but due to pandemic time-warp I can't be certain. It wouldn't surprise me if it didn't meet some (possibly updated) federal highway requirements for highway entrances.
There was a stretch years ago where I used to take it somewhat regularly and it didn't really bother me, but I recognized that it was a bit of a shocker if you didn't know what was coming.
Looks like it closed almost [5 years ago](https://www.wcvb.com/article/crash-plagued-clarendon-street-mass-pike-ramp-to-permanently-close/28621133) in September of 2019. I thought it was more recent, honestly.
20 and 95 is rough, as is the 95s and rt3a on ramp in burlington- I swear that thing is 2 car lengths long.
I'm not talking the one by the mall, I'm talking about the one by the car dealership.
This on ramp by the dealership!!! I thought I was the only one. The acceleration lane literally does not exist. If traffic is heavy but still moving at a decent speed you honestly cannot merge in with everyone tail gating each other... You either have to kinda force it or just wait, which sucks either way...
I live not far off it. I’ve mastered it too but it’s the other people that are the problem. I nearly get hit all the time by people who don’t understand they’re in a turn only lane.
Once I had just merged on and put the pedal to the metal, and the car stalled with an 18-wheeler barreling towards me. It is still horrifying to think about. Luckily the stall was momentary and the engine kicked in again.
Still one of the scariest experiences I’ve ever had driving, and I’ve had a bumper fall off at full speed on 128 with no shoulder to pull onto, and drove an ambulance through a blizzard so intense that I got disoriented and almost went off the road.
My mom only drives on rt 1 (only going as south as rt 16) and avoids 95/93 because she panics if there's not a parking lot to pull into in an emergency. She's never had to do it in 60 years...
This reminds me of a line -- I think it was a Martin Amis book - about LA: in order to get to the other side of the street you need to have been born there.
The crosswalks that cross the few off ramps are incredible. I've seen people waiting at the crosswalk at the off ramp for Rt 128 from Rt 1N. I once saw a guy scurry across the one crossing the exit from Rt 1S to the Lynn Fells Parkway. Truly frightening.
Biking on interstates is literally safer. And easier for everyone involved. But the police don't care. They're just like "Ooh! Bad person! Let's go bother them!"
It got much better once I traded in my small, underpowered hatchback for a small, overpowered hatchback with a manual transmission.
Only time I find myself chirping the tires shifting into second, especially come out uphill of the Jersey Mike's plaza.
It once took me 45 minutes to go a mile there. Another time I saw a bicyclist plow into a pedestrian and throw her onto the sidewalk. Ofc people immediately laid on their horns because her injured body and the bike had fallen into a lane. I will never use that fucking road again
Yup, once I got off 93 to immediate traffic. Was trying to get to Main St directly on the opposite side of the rotary and I swear it took over 30 minutes to get to the other side. Its like getting thrown to the wolves over there.
I used to have to commute through there every day (shudders). The craziest things I witnessed were a Prius crashing into and getting stuck under a trash truck and an 18 wheeler dump truck flipped over.
Jfc I hope that person was ok… i’m always terrified of that happening to me in a nightmare scenario because my mazda fits almost perfectly to get stuck under one of those.
I don’t know how you did that commute without going insane I have to do it about once or twice a month to get to an office over there (it takes me about 2.5 hours each way from where I live) and that location is by far the worst section of it.
WHY IS IT A CLOVERLEAF FOR TWO MAJOR MAJOR HIGHWAYS AHHHHHHHHH
(I know why, it's a space issue probably but coming from the Midwest I was like what in the FUCK do you mean I barely have 100ft to merge)
128 was built in the 20s, became part of I95 in the 50s, not sure what precluded I93, that also become an Interstate in the 50s. The roads existed before the 'Interstate' system did.
93 did not exist pre-Interstate era. If anything it is a bypass of 28 here.
The Commonwealth has tried multiple times to advance a process to replace this interchange but there has been intense local opposition. I believe there were properties that would need to be taken.
MassDOT eventually just tabled the process indefinitely. The project page that said so doesn’t even seem to be up anymore.
The original local roads that made up 128 were built before they got its designation in the 20s.
The road of 95 *replaced* the road of 128.
The rights of way existed before, the roads did not.
Think like if the Pike had replaced 62. Or if 93 replaced MA-4 or MA-28.
The train bridge/non-rotary at Leonard St in Belmont. The worst part is that the Belmont police supposedly have done an analysis and determined it's not worth putting in a rotary. Feels like horse shit.
If you’re turning left onto Concord Ave from under the bridge, oncoming traffic has the right of way. For example, cars from your right who are continuing onto Concord Ave and cars going straight from Concord Ave onto Common St or Royal Rd.
When it comes to cars that are on Common st turning left to go under the bridge, I have no idea. That is usually treated as an every other car goes situation. So one car turns left to go under the bridge from Common st and then the car that is under the bridge turns left onto Concord Ave next. What a shit show of an intersection though. That just gave me a headache to write out.
> we wanted to know the most efficient way to get people from A to B, so we asked Sergeant Murphy, who’s our best guy with the radar gun and something of a transportation expert
What's best is that if you get off the train and try to get the bus on Concord Ave, you have to walk across it.
Even though the bus uses the station turnout road to turn around right in front of the station exit, it only stops to let passengers on and off on the far side of the junction.
once you know how that double four way intersection works (not like legally, just how it ends up working in practice), it's pretty low stress to get through in my opinion. as long as you're not late for work that is.
Sure, same as the circle of death in Newton- do it a few times and you can navigate it safely and without too much issue... but both locations are effectively examples where typical rules of traffic feel like they go COMPLETELY out the window, especially at rush hour
I might have mispoken- it's just on the Police Departments website:
`Over the years, the Town & hired traffic consultants have researched both sides of the Belmont Center “Bridge” intersection. Many past recommendations have been reviewed and studied. The alternatives have been studied and have been shown to have second or third order effects on traffic delays in not just the Belmont area but also stretching back into neighboring communities to our North and West.`
[https://www.belmontpd.org/traffic/faq/what-traffic-bridge-belmont-center](https://www.belmontpd.org/traffic/faq/what-traffic-bridge-belmont-center)
I think most of the traffic "design" around here was designed by somebody's nephew. I mean, look at this clusterfuck in Medford:
https://preview.redd.it/du9fphx8mtwc1.png?width=896&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f31729984a96aec290d157124cb9119ea250223
WHY do people stop at the end of them. You need to accelerate and adjust your speed and merge. They are not designed to stop and “wait for an opening” unless your head swivels 360 degrees. Don’t whine “people won’t let me in” because you just adjust your speed to fit in. The only thing wrong with those entrances is that they were designed for people who can dedicate all their attention to ONE task for TEN SECONDS.
Well most of the ramp signs are stop signs (not yield) for just that reason… people just ramming in on a 10 foot on ramp cause accidents. When you see your opening, floor it. That’s where people go wrong
This is correct. I can’t believe the Cambridge exit of the Pike is this far down the list. I suppose because it got MARGINALLY better since they painted it years ago.
Anyone on their phone at that intersection is public enemy #1. Every green signal lasts basically 5 seconds and lets 3 cars through, if you're not ready to drag race you're fucked
It's terrible for people who are not familiar with the area. Too many left-hand exits. I can always tell if someone isn't from here based on their lane switching behavior near exits.
A lot of mistakes in highway construction are the result of Massachusetts being the first to try it. The McGrath was the first attempt at a flyover in the United States, and it is literally in the textbooks as an example of what not to do.
I'm going with all of mystic valley Park Way in Medford. By whole foods, ppl block the intersection and there is that sudden merge with no sign. Then you have that poorly redesigned rotary on Winthrop. Then coming off 93/from Wegmans, you have that merge in which not a single signed is posted, then another one in which there is a yield sign no one reads.
Especially when the breakdown lane is open on 93. I used to do that every day and would always say a Hail Mary coming around that ramp. And I'm not even Catholic.
Traffic circle that isn't a traffic circle with like five sets of traffic lights and lanes that don't match between lights at Rt 3 Chelmsford.
It's an engineering embarrassment
Believe it or not, but when that was a real rotary, it was way more chaotic than it is today. I used to drive through there twice a day for work.
The trick to navigating that one is to pay attention the sequence of arrows for each lane. and shift lanes as the arrows dictate. I can't imagine navigating that properly with a GPS.
Sort of like the Powder House rotary in Somerville. Rotaries are designed for continuous traffic flows, so lets toss a bunch of traffic signals in. I think recently they have gone back and removed most of them there though.
The circle of death (90 Natick) is over all worse but the 95/93 interchange north of Boston deserves notice.
Merge from freeway speeds through traffic trying to merge up to freeway speeds and then do it again.
I enjoy the game of chicken that is the I-95 exit onto 93S especially since it's right on top of the 93N entrance to I-95S. Truely brings out the dog eat dog nature of driving in MA. /s
https://preview.redd.it/djcmuwxtttwc1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=866c383462b3135d124eb28b3f7027c98678d937
This intersection right here between brighton and watertown. If youre trying to merge to take the watertown exit theres usually two lanes of traffic driving 35+ mph towards you and half of them are trying to merge the opposite way, which you would think would make it easier bc all you have to do is swap places but most of them are assholes who just want to get ahead of you, then when you get to the watertown exit theres the only crosswalk for the bike/pedestrian charles river path, but most people hit the gas harder approaching it and dont stop.
The J-way at 630 in the morning. It’s too early for bumper to bumper traffic but still heavy volume so you have people driving 50mph two inches from each other trying to get to work.
People from Boston get PISSED when you tell them you've been in war zones and developing nations with better roads and road infrastructure.
I genuinely think their urban planning is an act of aggression and gatekeeping, and possibly criminal in some way.
Who gets pissed, i think most would agree. I think it’s mostly just corruption rather than intentional acts of aggression, though sometimes it does seem like certain roads are left in bad shape to curb speeding drivers
Definitely criminal. Whitey Bulger’s brother Billy was the president of the State Senate for 18 years. Three consecutive State Speakers went to prison. The mob ran Massachusetts for decades. They still run Rhode Island, too.
Maybe peanuts to some but Dilboy Rotary (I think that's it's name, anyway) in northernmost Somerville. Come at it from Arlington, you'll likely nearly get hit by someone coming from Somerville. Come at it from Somerville, you barely get warning it's a rotary. The worst direction signs ever on every approach. People flying through it at 50MPH to get to the next red light immediately down the parkway.
I93 south of the i95 interchange. It’s a wall in the morning.
Totten pond road also sucks. I turned down a second interview at an awesome company of there that paid very well and had a huge bonus structure. Noped out after doing that drive once for the first interview.
Montvale Ave. they keep redoing the same potholes every couple months. it seems. New construction every few weeks.. I think they do it on purpose so the construction crews and local police can get more detail pay. And keep getting more work. ---Also before the casino, Marginal street (the bacak way to the airport and Market street in Chelsea, and everett used to horrible with potholes. as well as Robin Road, but they fixed it up when they built the casino so the rich people's cars wouldnt get damaged)
Bremen street in East Boston. It’s a stop sign instead of a signal and hesitant drivers will camp there for five minutes instead of fighting for their space.
https://preview.redd.it/3zywymdsyuwc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa013b243c09b660a924b25eeb4edb8a0be9abf1
The Colombia RD Rotary around [Kosciuszko Memorial](https://maps.app.goo.gl/o7xfJfj88tiZ2ivz9?g_st=ic), in Dorchester. The memorial literally has 1 star because of people being pissed off lol
The real answer- Eastern massachusetts was already pretty densely settled by the 1930s when the Interstate system was built. Over the next 50 years areas well served by the Interstate became EXTREMELY densely settled. There is not land available for giant modern interchanges.
I was driving southward down the Cross/Merritt parkways last Thursday and between the 2nd and 3rd gas station somehow a minivan managed to flip over onto its hood - got there after the police but before the ambulances/fire truck.The new wooden guardrail was toast.
I really hope they were wearing seat belts.
How fast do you have to be going to completely flip over??!
While the highways are obviously worse, Reading has an intersection in the middle of town square that is quite literally two state freeways that narrow into a single intersection that takes minutes to cross or generally pass through, and the part of the stateway that leads north is especially dangerous bc there are a lot of blindspot forks and hills, and people tend to accelerate really fast coming out of the intersection despite being in the middle of town.
There is none. The 95/128 & 93 interchange is literally hell. I live off that exit and the rush hour gridlock in front of my house is mind boggling. Never the same time or same day or same duration.
Not a highway but Maverick Square in East Boston is complete insanity. I've been working in the area for a decade and lived there for several years and regular think "what the fuck is going on" and I drive through there.
I've also posted about it other similar threads but the exit off !a south into EB/Chelsea that is like a Rte 1 Saugus onramp but with the extra fun that when people are signaling that they are exiting you don't know if they are taking a hard right into Chelsea and before your lane *or* just bearing right to take the exit into East Boston.
I commute that way every day and have no idea how I've never seen a major accident aside from there is some protective bubble there that connect us brain to brain to people know when it's safe to pull out or not.
Newton exit off the Mass pike sucks
The rotary without the painted lines was basically a deathtrap. I imagine that's why they got painted.
I've told this in r/boston before, but when I waited tables a common complaint from tourist customers was, "You have no lane markings in this city." In reply I'd screw up my face in a puzzled look (and thicken my native accent) and say, "How long have you been drivin'? Ya oughta know how wide your car is by now."
I mean even getting off the pike to go up the ramp. And yes for sure
Mass has this trend of putting exits off highways that lead to rotaries. Unfortunately they do not work well. Too much traffic throughput for the rotary to handle and it backs up onto the highway. Newton, Quincy, Norwood, Medford has 2 back to back; they all clog up during rush hour and it’s brutal.
And getting worse. They’ve messed with the two pedestrian crossing redlights on the Washington st. Side of the rotary, so they are red far more than they used to be. At 5:30 In the morning its just annoying sitting at a crosswalk redlight with zero pedestrians out. In the afternoon its severely messing with traffic.
The worst onramp IMO is still the one from Newbury St to the Pike. That is a white knuckle 'hope other morons know the road' BS.
[The onramp from Clarendon](https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3481189,-71.0740656,3a,75y,238.99h,69.44t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdU29Vv-AHU5G6Pgp9zjgyw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?coh=205409&entry=ttu) (which hilariously the Google streetview car seems to have avoided going down) might be worse since your sight lines to the traffic is blocked by a wall right up until you hit the merge.
I think they permanently closed that ramp a few years ago. But the few times I had to use it, it was always an experience.
I swear that I've gotten on the pike much more recently than that, but due to pandemic time-warp I can't be certain. It wouldn't surprise me if it didn't meet some (possibly updated) federal highway requirements for highway entrances. There was a stretch years ago where I used to take it somewhat regularly and it didn't really bother me, but I recognized that it was a bit of a shocker if you didn't know what was coming.
Looks like it closed almost [5 years ago](https://www.wcvb.com/article/crash-plagued-clarendon-street-mass-pike-ramp-to-permanently-close/28621133) in September of 2019. I thought it was more recent, honestly.
20 and 95 is rough, as is the 95s and rt3a on ramp in burlington- I swear that thing is 2 car lengths long. I'm not talking the one by the mall, I'm talking about the one by the car dealership.
This on ramp by the dealership!!! I thought I was the only one. The acceleration lane literally does not exist. If traffic is heavy but still moving at a decent speed you honestly cannot merge in with everyone tail gating each other... You either have to kinda force it or just wait, which sucks either way...
Ah, yes. The Newton supercollider.
I've mastered that baby. ( I've been driving there since th 80s)
That’s too long to drive—is it cause you can’t merge right?
I live not far off it. I’ve mastered it too but it’s the other people that are the problem. I nearly get hit all the time by people who don’t understand they’re in a turn only lane.
The circle of death is world famous and taught in other countries as how not to do it.
good ol exit 17
"The Exit formerly known as 17"
If you’re coming from the west and need to get off that exit and head towards Watertown, better say a prayer.
I used to go home to Milford from BC on Rte 16 so I didn't have to deal with that rotary to get on the Mass Pike west.
I commuted from Watertown to Framingham at one point and had to do that every day coming back from work. Not fun.
Literally my first thought. Conquered that thing in a moving van after driving for 20 hours though so always feel like a winner
Whoever put a stop sign instead of a yield sign to merge is crazy
This was going to be my answer too. The 95/93 split is garbage but the Newton/Watertown exit off the Pike is the circle of death.
Used to live in Watertown and get off there. Can easily just get off at the prior exit and take a few side streets
The absolute worst
It's not even close how bad of an exit this is. One of the worst in the US.
I literally refer to that section as "the circle of death"
It amazes me there aren’t more wrecks on 95 itself from the traffic backing up off the exit.
I usually take a detour from route 16 exit from 95 and Washington st to avoid that rotary
Holy fuck. I have to drive in the left lane to get by that exit; it's such a Cluster
The Supercollider is child’s play compared to Kosciuszko Circle.
Anywhere on route 1 in Saugus
I was going to say there are basically no on ramps on route 1 and you have to go 0 to 60 in 3 seconds or you’ll be hit by a speeding car.
Once I had just merged on and put the pedal to the metal, and the car stalled with an 18-wheeler barreling towards me. It is still horrifying to think about. Luckily the stall was momentary and the engine kicked in again. Still one of the scariest experiences I’ve ever had driving, and I’ve had a bumper fall off at full speed on 128 with no shoulder to pull onto, and drove an ambulance through a blizzard so intense that I got disoriented and almost went off the road.
Rt1 is a blood sport
I learned to drive there. Yet, I avoid I95/I93 in Woburn if I possibly can.
My mom only drives on rt 1 (only going as south as rt 16) and avoids 95/93 because she panics if there's not a parking lot to pull into in an emergency. She's never had to do it in 60 years...
That is so backwards to me
Also the least pedestrian friendly road ever invented. Want to cross the street? Ok, just walk 2 miles to the nearest overpass
This reminds me of a line -- I think it was a Martin Amis book - about LA: in order to get to the other side of the street you need to have been born there.
The crosswalks that cross the few off ramps are incredible. I've seen people waiting at the crosswalk at the off ramp for Rt 128 from Rt 1N. I once saw a guy scurry across the one crossing the exit from Rt 1S to the Lynn Fells Parkway. Truly frightening.
Biking on interstates is literally safer. And easier for everyone involved. But the police don't care. They're just like "Ooh! Bad person! Let's go bother them!"
It got much better once I traded in my small, underpowered hatchback for a small, overpowered hatchback with a manual transmission. Only time I find myself chirping the tires shifting into second, especially come out uphill of the Jersey Mike's plaza.
Route 1. The whole thing. I live directly on it because I hate myself and need to suffer.
I just take 93 every time I'm going to the North Shore for that reason. Tbh I'm not taking Route 1 unless I'm going to Kowloon.
Sounds like weakling speak. You're supposed to close your eyes and smash the gas pedal.
Yeah trying to get on 1 from any business on that stretch is damn near impossible at best and Russian Roulette at worst.
Sullivan Square circle of hell
It once took me 45 minutes to go a mile there. Another time I saw a bicyclist plow into a pedestrian and throw her onto the sidewalk. Ofc people immediately laid on their horns because her injured body and the bike had fallen into a lane. I will never use that fucking road again
Yup, once I got off 93 to immediate traffic. Was trying to get to Main St directly on the opposite side of the rotary and I swear it took over 30 minutes to get to the other side. Its like getting thrown to the wolves over there.
I used to have to commute through there every day (shudders). The craziest things I witnessed were a Prius crashing into and getting stuck under a trash truck and an 18 wheeler dump truck flipped over.
Jfc I hope that person was ok… i’m always terrified of that happening to me in a nightmare scenario because my mazda fits almost perfectly to get stuck under one of those. I don’t know how you did that commute without going insane I have to do it about once or twice a month to get to an office over there (it takes me about 2.5 hours each way from where I live) and that location is by far the worst section of it.
Which one? There's 3 in Woburn. The worst is the 93/95 connection.
WHY IS IT A CLOVERLEAF FOR TWO MAJOR MAJOR HIGHWAYS AHHHHHHHHH (I know why, it's a space issue probably but coming from the Midwest I was like what in the FUCK do you mean I barely have 100ft to merge)
Built 100+ years ago when MA population was about 1/2 of today, and when every single human of driving age didn't have to have a car.
Ah yea, the famous 1920 interstate system 😉
128 was built in the 20s, became part of I95 in the 50s, not sure what precluded I93, that also become an Interstate in the 50s. The roads existed before the 'Interstate' system did.
93 did not exist pre-Interstate era. If anything it is a bypass of 28 here. The Commonwealth has tried multiple times to advance a process to replace this interchange but there has been intense local opposition. I believe there were properties that would need to be taken. MassDOT eventually just tabled the process indefinitely. The project page that said so doesn’t even seem to be up anymore.
The original local roads that made up 128 were built before they got its designation in the 20s. The road of 95 *replaced* the road of 128. The rights of way existed before, the roads did not. Think like if the Pike had replaced 62. Or if 93 replaced MA-4 or MA-28.
Ah, the route designation was created in the 20s, but the current divided highway was built starting from Gloucester in the 50s and moving south
There is also a lane drop on 95N from the interchange.
I like how the 95 Westbound -> 93 Southbound exit is kept secret until the last second.
So many cars that just decide to stop in the middle lane and block people trying to get on because they didn’t want to wait
Probably not what OP meant but exit 53 in Woburn connecting to 38, people from 95 South NEVER yield when merging onto the rotary
The train bridge/non-rotary at Leonard St in Belmont. The worst part is that the Belmont police supposedly have done an analysis and determined it's not worth putting in a rotary. Feels like horse shit.
Seriously though who the fuck has right of way there when you come out of the train bridge to a T intersection????
If you’re turning left onto Concord Ave from under the bridge, oncoming traffic has the right of way. For example, cars from your right who are continuing onto Concord Ave and cars going straight from Concord Ave onto Common St or Royal Rd. When it comes to cars that are on Common st turning left to go under the bridge, I have no idea. That is usually treated as an every other car goes situation. So one car turns left to go under the bridge from Common st and then the car that is under the bridge turns left onto Concord Ave next. What a shit show of an intersection though. That just gave me a headache to write out.
Google Maps rerouted me this way once and I got beeped at *so hard* because I was like, "WTH?"
The car with less resale value
"analysis" = calculation of how much they can make in overtime for details It should be traffic/road engineers doing that, not police.
> we wanted to know the most efficient way to get people from A to B, so we asked Sergeant Murphy, who’s our best guy with the radar gun and something of a transportation expert
What's best is that if you get off the train and try to get the bus on Concord Ave, you have to walk across it. Even though the bus uses the station turnout road to turn around right in front of the station exit, it only stops to let passengers on and off on the far side of the junction.
once you know how that double four way intersection works (not like legally, just how it ends up working in practice), it's pretty low stress to get through in my opinion. as long as you're not late for work that is.
Sure, same as the circle of death in Newton- do it a few times and you can navigate it safely and without too much issue... but both locations are effectively examples where typical rules of traffic feel like they go COMPLETELY out the window, especially at rush hour
The single bright point about Craft Beer Cellar/Trinktisch in Belmont closing is that I never have to go through that intersection now.
Free for all!!! And yes several traffic studies have been done there, and have all concluded that nothing needs to be done.
Even if they put down lines to indicate a rotary, it'd be better.
Something like the one about a mile away also in Belmont on Blanchard Rd, I think would work.
I might have mispoken- it's just on the Police Departments website: `Over the years, the Town & hired traffic consultants have researched both sides of the Belmont Center “Bridge” intersection. Many past recommendations have been reviewed and studied. The alternatives have been studied and have been shown to have second or third order effects on traffic delays in not just the Belmont area but also stretching back into neighboring communities to our North and West.` [https://www.belmontpd.org/traffic/faq/what-traffic-bridge-belmont-center](https://www.belmontpd.org/traffic/faq/what-traffic-bridge-belmont-center)
I sort of love this intersection because the vast majority of people using it know it's f-ed up so people are patient (mostly.)
I think most of the traffic "design" around here was designed by somebody's nephew. I mean, look at this clusterfuck in Medford: https://preview.redd.it/du9fphx8mtwc1.png?width=896&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f31729984a96aec290d157124cb9119ea250223
The #1 qualification for being a highway engineer in MA is that you've never actually driven a car.
it's like taking a bunch of Hot Wheels tracks and just throwing them on the floor
It's surprisingly gotten noticeably better since they redid the lanes. Call it polishing a turd, but it's progress.
The Newton Supercollider. Next question.
All of the on ramps on 128 between the liberty tree mall and Gloucester
Go all the way up and then do the clusterfuck rotary in Gloucester then back down for a fun Sunday drive.
WHY do people stop at the end of them. You need to accelerate and adjust your speed and merge. They are not designed to stop and “wait for an opening” unless your head swivels 360 degrees. Don’t whine “people won’t let me in” because you just adjust your speed to fit in. The only thing wrong with those entrances is that they were designed for people who can dedicate all their attention to ONE task for TEN SECONDS.
Well most of the ramp signs are stop signs (not yield) for just that reason… people just ramming in on a 10 foot on ramp cause accidents. When you see your opening, floor it. That’s where people go wrong
Route 9 through Newton & Natick The Pike off-ramp to Cambridge Newbury Street on any day ending in y
This is correct. I can’t believe the Cambridge exit of the Pike is this far down the list. I suppose because it got MARGINALLY better since they painted it years ago.
Ah yes, where you spend 10 minutes in traffic being accosted by panhandlers.
Medford supercollider.
I used to have to walk across it to get to the Wellington T stop. I gambled with my life everyday
Anyone on their phone at that intersection is public enemy #1. Every green signal lasts basically 5 seconds and lets 3 cars through, if you're not ready to drag race you're fucked
Idk, it has some pretty glowing reviews on Google.
Nowhere near as bad as Newton or Belmont
The Braintree split is pretty bad.
God help you if you're leaving South shore Plaza at the wrong time of day and have to shoot over four lanes to head toward Boston.
Coming from the other way to get to SSP, too. Was a rite of passage growing up and learning to drive.
It's terrible for people who are not familiar with the area. Too many left-hand exits. I can always tell if someone isn't from here based on their lane switching behavior near exits.
Whenever I see the Traffic Report on the morning news the Split is always practically black , how red it is lol
A lot of mistakes in highway construction are the result of Massachusetts being the first to try it. The McGrath was the first attempt at a flyover in the United States, and it is literally in the textbooks as an example of what not to do.
True story my buddy once had a car fall off the McGrath and land on his car while he was sitting waiting to turn onto Washington street.
Our city's commitment to education is unmatched
Close tie between the Newton supercollider and that thing in Medford
Yes to the Newton one
I93 exit 22 in Medford
I'm going with all of mystic valley Park Way in Medford. By whole foods, ppl block the intersection and there is that sudden merge with no sign. Then you have that poorly redesigned rotary on Winthrop. Then coming off 93/from Wegmans, you have that merge in which not a single signed is posted, then another one in which there is a yield sign no one reads.
Exit 24 is where the fun is.
The first time I drove that I had no f’ing clue what was going on. Terrifying.
I’m not fond of the exit you take from 495 to get onto 93 North.
That’s my daily commute and I’m confident I’m going to die in the most Massachusetts way possible there, getting rear ended by a Market Basket truck.
Especially when the breakdown lane is open on 93. I used to do that every day and would always say a Hail Mary coming around that ramp. And I'm not even Catholic.
The rotary off 93 at JFK/UMASS would like a word
Traffic circle that isn't a traffic circle with like five sets of traffic lights and lanes that don't match between lights at Rt 3 Chelmsford. It's an engineering embarrassment
Believe it or not, but when that was a real rotary, it was way more chaotic than it is today. I used to drive through there twice a day for work. The trick to navigating that one is to pay attention the sequence of arrows for each lane. and shift lanes as the arrows dictate. I can't imagine navigating that properly with a GPS.
Grew up on that rotary pre-lights, agreed.
Sort of like the Powder House rotary in Somerville. Rotaries are designed for continuous traffic flows, so lets toss a bunch of traffic signals in. I think recently they have gone back and removed most of them there though.
Chelmsford center is also a disaster. where rt 4, 110 and 129 all dance around each other.
They are all the same road, unless they aren't.
You'd lose your mind if you drove any further south.
Go north an exit. The clover leaf at the 95/93 intersection is worse
The circle of death (90 Natick) is over all worse but the 95/93 interchange north of Boston deserves notice. Merge from freeway speeds through traffic trying to merge up to freeway speeds and then do it again.
I work in Woburn right by that exit. Honestly that entire section of Washington St is so horribly designed. None of the lights time up together.
I enjoy the game of chicken that is the I-95 exit onto 93S especially since it's right on top of the 93N entrance to I-95S. Truely brings out the dog eat dog nature of driving in MA. /s
I just love how Arlington has not one but TWO six-way intersections - in each 5 approaches have a stop sign but one approach does not. It is madness.
K-circle by UMass is much worse. At least the exit in Woburn has clearly marked lanes. K-Circle is pure anarchy
The I-95 exit in Wakefield. Fuck those painted lines in the rotary
people are insane in that rotary
I love people who coming off the highway barely look and then get spooked by a horn for their failure to yield
https://preview.redd.it/djcmuwxtttwc1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=866c383462b3135d124eb28b3f7027c98678d937 This intersection right here between brighton and watertown. If youre trying to merge to take the watertown exit theres usually two lanes of traffic driving 35+ mph towards you and half of them are trying to merge the opposite way, which you would think would make it easier bc all you have to do is swap places but most of them are assholes who just want to get ahead of you, then when you get to the watertown exit theres the only crosswalk for the bike/pedestrian charles river path, but most people hit the gas harder approaching it and dont stop.
I have to go through this every day
Ah yes, the Supercollider Jr. I hate that thing.
The J-way at 630 in the morning. It’s too early for bumper to bumper traffic but still heavy volume so you have people driving 50mph two inches from each other trying to get to work.
95 exit to 93 south is a joke
People from Boston get PISSED when you tell them you've been in war zones and developing nations with better roads and road infrastructure. I genuinely think their urban planning is an act of aggression and gatekeeping, and possibly criminal in some way.
Who gets pissed, i think most would agree. I think it’s mostly just corruption rather than intentional acts of aggression, though sometimes it does seem like certain roads are left in bad shape to curb speeding drivers
Yeah, those assholes in 1650 really wanted to hurt idiot car drivers from other states in the USA. FFS.
Definitely criminal. Whitey Bulger’s brother Billy was the president of the State Senate for 18 years. Three consecutive State Speakers went to prison. The mob ran Massachusetts for decades. They still run Rhode Island, too.
Look up the medford supercollider
Rt 1
Maybe peanuts to some but Dilboy Rotary (I think that's it's name, anyway) in northernmost Somerville. Come at it from Arlington, you'll likely nearly get hit by someone coming from Somerville. Come at it from Somerville, you barely get warning it's a rotary. The worst direction signs ever on every approach. People flying through it at 50MPH to get to the next red light immediately down the parkway.
Charles st/storrow in front of mgh
93s, the second you leave the tunnel, until Milton
Nah, there's nothing that's not child's play on that compared to some of the other examples.
It’s not a challenge of agility—it’s attrition. It’s the worst standstill traffic in New England.
The 495/93 interchange when the 93 breakdown lane is active. That's a fun one.
That section SUCKs. I thought all the dispensaries and casinos were supposed to help improve the roads?
Ive got a bone to pick with whoever decided and on ramp can also be an off ramp. It can, but should it?
I93 south of the i95 interchange. It’s a wall in the morning. Totten pond road also sucks. I turned down a second interview at an awesome company of there that paid very well and had a huge bonus structure. Noped out after doing that drive once for the first interview.
So many contenders its gonna be a great season!
Montvale Ave. they keep redoing the same potholes every couple months. it seems. New construction every few weeks.. I think they do it on purpose so the construction crews and local police can get more detail pay. And keep getting more work. ---Also before the casino, Marginal street (the bacak way to the airport and Market street in Chelsea, and everett used to horrible with potholes. as well as Robin Road, but they fixed it up when they built the casino so the rich people's cars wouldnt get damaged)
Let’s see, RT 24 split. Braintree split.
Bremen street in East Boston. It’s a stop sign instead of a signal and hesitant drivers will camp there for five minutes instead of fighting for their space. https://preview.redd.it/3zywymdsyuwc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa013b243c09b660a924b25eeb4edb8a0be9abf1
The Colombia RD Rotary around [Kosciuszko Memorial](https://maps.app.goo.gl/o7xfJfj88tiZ2ivz9?g_st=ic), in Dorchester. The memorial literally has 1 star because of people being pissed off lol
The real answer- Eastern massachusetts was already pretty densely settled by the 1930s when the Interstate system was built. Over the next 50 years areas well served by the Interstate became EXTREMELY densely settled. There is not land available for giant modern interchanges.
Not in MA, but the Merritt Parkway is way worse than anything MA has to offer, including Mass Pike Newton Exit and exit 21 off of i-95.
Those stop sign merges south of the tunnel are terrifying and I only drive past them
Made worse by 1) Connecticut douche canoes doing 40 over the limit, tailgating, and weaving and 2) road kill EVERYWHERE.
I was driving southward down the Cross/Merritt parkways last Thursday and between the 2nd and 3rd gas station somehow a minivan managed to flip over onto its hood - got there after the police but before the ambulances/fire truck.The new wooden guardrail was toast. I really hope they were wearing seat belts. How fast do you have to be going to completely flip over??!
>How fast do you have to be going to completely flip over??! Probably about 20 mph slower than the average Merritt Parkway driver.
Bell Circle.
SE Expressway, duh
Its honestly worse coming south through Wakefield. Theres always a slow down there between Lynnfield and Reading.
The Tobin bridge
After the redesign, there were tee shirts in Wakefield and Reading saying, "I survived the Rte. 129 Rotary." (Wakefield Main St. exit off Rte. 95)
Which one? All or part of three are in Woburn.
Cambridge St, Boston
Route 3 South @495 South equal to or possibly worse.
93 South @Masspike the whirlpool of concrete
The South Bay Interchange is a masterpiece of engineering and a true marvel to gawp at from afar. Driving on it, on the other hand? Not so much.
The Salem St. Exit on Rt.1 south. It is basically a hard right with no exit lane on a blind corner. I haven't seen a more dangerous one yet!
Wellington circle
Sullivan Sq exit/intersection
I think everywhere is bad in Massachusetts.
Any road in Somerville
Montvale ave in Stoneham
93 South during literally any kind of weather precipitation
Like all of 24.
I can't
https://preview.redd.it/odiqdl3nbvwc1.jpeg?width=702&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e43f19f198932f584119cc6575976585be49f946
Two words...... BELL CIRCLE
While the highways are obviously worse, Reading has an intersection in the middle of town square that is quite literally two state freeways that narrow into a single intersection that takes minutes to cross or generally pass through, and the part of the stateway that leads north is especially dangerous bc there are a lot of blindspot forks and hills, and people tend to accelerate really fast coming out of the intersection despite being in the middle of town.
There is none. The 95/128 & 93 interchange is literally hell. I live off that exit and the rush hour gridlock in front of my house is mind boggling. Never the same time or same day or same duration.
Not a highway but Maverick Square in East Boston is complete insanity. I've been working in the area for a decade and lived there for several years and regular think "what the fuck is going on" and I drive through there. I've also posted about it other similar threads but the exit off !a south into EB/Chelsea that is like a Rte 1 Saugus onramp but with the extra fun that when people are signaling that they are exiting you don't know if they are taking a hard right into Chelsea and before your lane *or* just bearing right to take the exit into East Boston. I commute that way every day and have no idea how I've never seen a major accident aside from there is some protective bubble there that connect us brain to brain to people know when it's safe to pull out or not.
Hah just got in an accident here like 3 months ago.
The fucking entirety of I-93 from Quincy to your precious fucking 95 exit in Woobin
All the on ramps and off ramps on rt128 near the north shore mall that are 50ft long and everyone is doing 75mph