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Friday, July 3, 2009

The Connector and Government

Does anyone remember this news story from the 20 November 2005 issue of The Boston Globe?  Boston's TV Channel 5 had this news story, which talked about the wall at the end of the Connector.

From the Channel 5 report:
Officials said the Lowell Connector has the highest fatality rate per mile of roadway in the state with a deadly crash recorded for every three miles annually.♠

The road ends at a wall, which officials say motorists routinely crash into. McTeague said the police do all they can, but can't do it alone.
Greg Page has owned up to getting a ticket on the Connector and here I do also.  My contribution to overcoming the deficit.  It must have been back around 2005, since I had Dick Edwards in the car with me and he has since moved to Texas.  Maybe due to the ticket experience.

I also remember when the three (3) stop lights at the end of the Connector had strobe lights in them.  The center one still does.  When the red light comes on you can still see the black line in the other two stop lights where the stobe used to be.

We have been down to one for quite some time. A couple of months ago I called the local Lowell City Government and asked about it. . They told me it was a Commonwealth issue. But, they have the inside track in talking to their opposite numbers at the State level, so I let it go for a while. Several weeks ago I called the State Highway Office, the Electrical folks. They rogered that it needed to be fixed. I thought I would see action, but over the last several weeks we have either had replacement and failure or no action. I am not going with the former.

So, if this was an important issue several years ago, why is it not still a big issue?  Are we waiting for someone else to kill themselves, so we can then hunt for the guilty parties and then punish the innocent?♥

But, in the mean time, who do I now call?  Any suggestions?

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Of course the Connector is three miles long, so one fatal a year seems to be the average.
♥  From the Five Phases of Planning:
  1. Wild enthusiasm
  2. Disillusionment
  3. Hunt for the guilty
  4. Punishment of the innocent
  5. Promotion of the non-participants

1 comment:

Craig H said...

I knew I lived living here from the moment I moved here, but the feeling of home was never sweeter than when my ex got a speeding ticket on the connector on her way to pick up the kids.

Rumble strips, like the ones they put in the roadways approaching tollbooths and other surprise highway obstacles, would seem to be one obvious step.