there's a lot going on in this photo, but what's not immediately obvious is that it actually shows an infamous traffic choke point. Zoom out and you can see why this route connects DC and Baltimore with Pittsburgh and goes all the way through the Midwest. To connect from this highway to this one, drivers have to take about a 3 to 4-mile-long detour through the center of this town, Breezewood, Pennsylvania. It's one of just a few interstates in the US with traffic lights. The commercial corridor around this interchange has become a meme on American car-centric culture, depicting a detour that stops the flow of traffic for roughly 5.2 million drivers every year at its worst, creating congestion that spans miles. But if you take that traffic away, what happens to the town? We really need to balance how to retain the economic vitality of Breezewood while mitigating the negative impacts of vehicles, so we asked an expert to fix this choke point. So the simplest solution for driver efficiency would be to create an

interchange at this location where the turnpike meets Interstate 70. An interchange like a diverging diamond or a clover leaf. Diverging diamond interchange is where a freeway meets a major roadway. It reduces a lot of the conflicts between vehicles that are going between the two roadways. A Cloverleaf, however, is a more traditional interchange. This has eight ramps with four circular ramps and four direct ramps, which allow vehicles to go from one road to another in any direction. Both of these interchanges could go here where the roads intersect to build a diverging diamond interchange. What we would need to do is cross over the flows at this point and bring them back here at this point. But this interchange would require traffic signals, which we're trying to avoid, and a lot of land, which there isn't enough of. So what about a clover leaf? We would have those circular ramps connecting. This would allow movement between the two roads from any direction to any direction, reducing the interchange length in each direction by up to

roughly 4 miles challenge would be how it would interact with this local Road, how we could potentially avoid conflict with some of the existing properties and structures that are in that area. But there's another solution that's even simpler, and it only needs two ramps. So, the first would be a ramp that connects the turnpike to I70 southbound, and one that connects I70 traffic towards the turnpike. It allows movement between both roads in all directions with only two ramps, as opposed to an interchange at this location, which would require eight ramps in order to provide that same level of connectivity. This shortens the west and eastbound movements by about 1 to 2 miles. This would allow vehicles to move from one road to another without interacting with traffic lights, which would be helpful for all drivers, especially trucks. On average, trucks make up about 12% of traffic on rural interstates across the country, but trucks made up 36% of daily traffic in Breezwood last year. So, fixing the choke

point is expected to dramatically reduce their drive time and operating costs by over 140,000 hours and $9 million a year. But there's a reason Breezwood doesn't have a direct interest. Change decades ago. The 1956 Federal Aid Highway Act prevented a direct connection between I70 and the Turnpike because the Turnpike was a toll road. The federal government would not pay for that interchange because at the time an interstate could not end into a paid toll road. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is obligated to collect tolls, so it couldn't stop collecting them in order to get the federal funding, and it also didn't fund The Interchange itself. But Breezwood isn't the only place with loopy detours meant to send people through a toll booth with toll roads. It's advantageous to have all vehicles exiting and entering the toll road cross through one unified point, which is the toll plaza. Having to send traffic through one point resulted in these twisting and turning interchanges all over the country. Now with electronic

tolling that can be placed almost anywhere. Road design can be streamlined. A lot of these interchanges could be fixed in a similar manner to the bypasses shown at Breezewood. So instead of building an interchange, State Highway officials at the time used federal funds to extend I-70 North past the turnpike, ending at Route 30, and the traffic began there. There were a few attempts to address the congestion in Breezewood, but building a bypass was off the table, largely due to local opposition. Breezewood's economy was built on being a pit stop for travelers; it's the self-proclaimed town of motels. So locals fear that taking away the traffic would prevent potential patrons from visiting the businesses, threatening the town's very existence, which has happened before. Towns along Route 66 like Amboy in California and Teola in Oklahoma dwindled after Interstate 40 was built, bypassing the historic road. As a result, less traffic meant less customers, and those businesses declined to a point where they had to close. But

Fixing the interchange for travelers doesn't have to mean the end of Breezewood. We still want to have traffic go through that area for drivers to take breaks or visit the businesses, but we also want to improve the Route 30 Corridor so it's less auto-centric, which means redesigning Route 30. So, what we would like to do along Route 30 is essentially reconfigure the roadway to make it easier to make left turns and to allow pedestrians to walk between the different establishments in Breezewood. Step One: turn this into a roundabout. So, the benefit of the roundabout is that it allows drivers to make all movements without having to stop at a traffic signal, and it signals to drivers that they're entering a slower, calmer area. Step Two: Implement what's known as a road diet on this stretch of Route 30, which involves replacing at least one lane with other features like sidewalks and bicycle lanes. This is how a road diet was implemented in Charlotte, North Carolina. They took away one lane in each

Direction and replace that with a two-way left turn lane in the middle, a bicycle lane on either side, and then a mid-block crossing to allow folks to cross from one end to another. So, what would a road diet look like in Breezewood? This portion of Route 30 is six lanes, so when there's congestion, it's hard to make left turns into nearby businesses. Also, with six lanes, no sidewalks, and no crosswalks, it's nearly impossible for pedestrians to cross from one establishment to another. But with a bypass in place, traffic on Route 30 would decrease. Inase So Vesh would get rid of one lane and replace it with sidewalks on either side and add a two-way left turn lane in the middle that's divided by a mid-block crossing, essentially to allow pedestrians to go from one end to another. But the town needs more than just redesigned roads. Many of the businesses that once lined Route 30 have shut down, in part because even with 5 1/2 million drivers passing

through many aren't stopping. In 2017, the American Transportation Research Institute found that 80% of truck drivers didn't pull over in Breezwood. By removing a lot of the through traffic with an interchange south of Breezwood and by improving the overall character of Route 30, the hope is that this could attract a lot of people who want to go to Breezwood as a destination rather than being forced to drive through there. People have long complained about the congestion here. In 1999, one Wall Street Journal reporter wrote, There's no breezing through Breezwood. Now the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission says it's in conversation with local stakeholders about building a connection to I-70. A lot of cities were designed like this in the mid-1900s to be very auto-centric. That's why looking at this photo of Breezwood is like looking at truck stops and towns across America. So you don't have to go to Breezwood to know what it feels like to be there and

you don't have to look too far to find ways to make it better. Over the last few years, we've gained more knowledge on how to improve roads, make them more human-centric, and make them really support the residents, visitors, and businesses in the cities that they serve.

Transportation Engineer Tries to Fix This Iconic Traffic Chokepoint | WSJ Pro Perfected

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