Re: Traffic

[Paul Anderson <plandrsn@ma.ultranet.com>]

> Of course I have spent a lifetime trying to figure out how US3 becomes SR3
> at the Longfellow Bridge.

US 3 does not become MA 3 at the Longfellow Bridge.  US 3 comes down 
Memorial Drive and takes a right onto the BU Bridge and then ends at US 
20 (Commonwealth Avenue).  MA 3 starts at the BU Bridge, going down 
Memorial Drive.

So, the two routes touch, but are not contiguous.

> Actually, no, the Feds have decided that I-95 is so important that it
> cannot be concurrently signed with any inferior (state) highway.
> MassHighway has until something like 2004 to completely delete route
> 128 south of Peabody.

Thank goodness!  Maybe this will put an end to the insanity of hearing 
such things as the South Shore Plaza advertised as "exit 6 (or is it 7) 
off 128".  Holy cow!  Unless you knew that part of the road used to be 
called 128, you'd never find it!

Dual-numbering I-95 and MA 128 serves no purpose, and in fact, causes 
confusion.  For example, there's two Exit 26s off 128:  one in Peabody on 
MA 128 and one in Waltham on MA 128/I-95.

> ObRadio: this will have no effect whatsoever on what the traffic
> reporters call it.

Which is fine for those who know the "secret code" that I-93 from the 
Pike to Braintree is called the "Southeast Expressway", but for those 
who've moved here in the last fifteen years or so, how the heck do they 
know that?  It's not marked as such on signs or maps.

Paul