The following letter to the editor was submitted by Andover resident Jesse Jacobson, who holds a PhD in trasportation systems from MIT. The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Andover News. You can learn more about our policy on opinion and commentary on our Mission and Policies page.
On September 18,2024 I attended a presentation of the reconstruction of Rte. 133 between Beacon Street (at West Parish) and North Main Street. The project envisions a new pleasant cross section with generous accommodation for vulnerable users.
However, the redesign of the two signalized intersections at Beacon Street and at North Main Street, the West and East boundaries of the project, expose a serious flaw. With the increase in access lanes, the capacity of those two intersections and the roadway are going to increase.
In their presentation, the designers of the project never once mentioned the elephant in the room, that is, the two interstates, I93 and I495, and their interchange. Rte. 133 is parallel to, and less than half-a-mile South of, I495, an uncommonly tight squeeze for two arterials in suburbia, and a not-typically recommended layout. When traffic is congested on the interstates, Rte. 133 becomes preferred by commuters, and interstate traffic spills over. Even at present, spill-overs are frequently attractive for commuters. Increasing the capacity of those intersections will inevitably further increase the volume of traffic on Rte. 133, and this increase will be INSTANT because of the real time GPS-based navigation apps, such as Google, Waze and Garmin. This increase means more pollution, more accidents, and additional risk for project abutters and vehicles at the feeder intersections. As confirmation, ask Boston commuters if they experience any of the predicted reduction in congestion because of the Big Dig.
Rather than making spillovers from the interstates to Rte. 133 more attractive to the commuters who are (or should be) better served by those interstates, commuter traffic on the interstates should be kept there as much as possible. This can be accomplished by a) REDUCING the capacity of the two named signalized-intersections (not increasing that capacity, as proposed by MassDOT) and b) REDUCING the speed limits on Rte. 133 between Beacon and North Main Street, a singularly dense residential roadway.
Jesse Jacobson
Andover
About the author: Even before graduating with a civil engineering degree, the author participated in a major forensic study of 10 fatal freeway crashes. After earning a PhD in Transportation Systems from MIT, he worked for a few years at a research unit of the US Department of Transportation. He was also briefly the subject-matter expert at USDOT for Right-Turn-on-Red. He works closely with George Thorlin, the founder of Andover Safe Streets.
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