Boston's Newest U-Turn Confounds Users

Despite predictions of heavy use, a mere 200 vehicles a day are using a high-capacity expressway U-turn intended to ease traffic on the city's surface streets.

1 minute read

November 19, 2007, 1:00 PM PST

By Mike Lydon

"The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority's new $1.6 million U-turn ramp - celebrated as a major solution to the city's traffic congestion at its opening last month - has been used by just a trickle of drivers since the mayor and dignitaries took their inaugural spin.

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Fewer than 200 drivers a day use the ramp, a third of them illegally, according to turnpike sensors that track vehicles, just a small fraction of the 1,200 to 2,000 vehicles a day it was intended to accommodate.

Yet Turnpike officials will still not allow all vehicles to use the ramp, which is now open only to taxicabs, buses, and other two- axle commercial vehicles with Fast Lane transponders. Cabbies pay a $2 toll. Bus drivers pay $3."

FULL STORY: Few drivers using new U-turn ramp

Monday, November 19, 2007 in The Boston Globe

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