The Road to Hell is I-91

Along with the new job comes a new commute. I figured that a change from my back road journey to and from Avon, CT would be an improvement - especially considering Windsor is a straight shot up I-91 from my house. Net improvement on a clear traffic day is about 50%.

...on a clear traffic day.

When I was growing up in West Hartford it was well know that the transition from I-84 to I-91 was an abomination. You had to exit the highway, drive a few blocks through Hartford, then get back on the highway. All this was engineered to compel people to drive past the local department store. Back in the 1990s the state committed to improving the situation. Unfortunately "improve" is subjective.

So the new interchange has I-91 South through Hartford narrowing to 2 lanes from 4, not counting the HOV lane. The spare lanes on the right are dedicated to "exit only" traffic. The left hand lane for through traffic is bombarded by a merge from the HOV lane and is shared by people transitioning to I-84 East leaving essentially one lane dedicated to through traffic.

North of that debacle there are various engineering atrocities that cause massive backups from poorly designed merges and off ramps. Add the amazing stupidity of typical Connecticut drivers and the result can be easily anticipated.

But wait! There's more!

Whom ever is responsible for assigning state troopers to traffic stops in the area north of Hartford is a moron. And trust me when I tell you that is a compliment considering the evidence against them.

Hartford is a suburban city. Most of us live outside the city and many work outside the city which means A) traffic flow is not easily predicted and B) we don’t generally car pool. It's not that we don't like each other, it's just that most of us don’t live near people we work with. Driving 20 minutes out of your way to sort of defeats the purpose of car pooling in the first place.

What this means is that the HOV lane is useless. The cost/benefit is amazingly top heavy and it remains mostly empty. Unless there is a back up and people with a high risk tolerance try to make a solo run hoping to avoid any troopers. The troops are oh so smart and naturally caught on to this trick so they started putting traps in place to nab these nefarious commuters. Keeping in mind that Connecticut drivers are idiots, I am sure you can see how the shiny bumpers of a police car draws their attention to the extent that they are compelled to slam on their fucking brakes. The end result is that the cops are causing the sole motivation for people to "cheat" in the HOV lane. The bonus is the massive cost in time, gas, and money for the rest of us.

So the answer to all this is pretty easy: eliminate the HOV lane and the median providing 2 additional lanes for traffic. Convert one of those lanes to a dedicated I-84 East exit leaving 3 lanes for through and local traffic. All of this could be accomplished with some paint and one new onramp.

Can someone please tell me why this is all so damn difficult?