Traffic Schmaffic – Middletown to Rehoboth in a Measly 4 Hours and Loving It!
It is summer in Delaware, so time to complain about how long it takes to get from where you are, to the beach.
So many other stupid motorists clogging up the roads, so many glances at the speedometer reading 5mph. *sigh*
What to do?
Take a tax payer funded hop on a New Jersey state police chopper? I guess if you are some fat loser Republican.
Leave for Dewey at 3:00am? Maybe.
Just don’t do this one thing…DON’T build any more roads. That is a sure fire way to make a bad traffic situation worse.
Now a study from the University of Toronto confirms it: Expanding highways and roads increases congestion by creating more demand. The disheartening study used data from hundreds of metro areas in the U.S. to reach the conclusion that there is a “fundamental law of highway congestion,” which essentially says that people drive more when there are more roads to drive on–no matter how much traffic there is. As a result, increased building of “interstate highways and major urban roads is unlikely to relieve congestion of these roads.” Not even building more trains, buses, and light rail can help with the traffic problem.
So much for my boat service from the Wilmington Riverfront to Lewes idea. Although, while it would not impact the traffic sitch, it might be a pleasant way to spend the first few hours of your beach vacation. (Angel investors, let’s do lunch.)
So what does help? The University of Toronto researchers offer just one suggestion: congestion pricing. It’s a pain for commuters, but that’s sort of the point. People are desperate to drive, so if you want less traffic, you have to make it harder for them.
Toll booths!! It is a win/win. More regressive taxation and fewer cars on the road.
What to do?
1. PHL to Nassau or Freeport is a 5 or 6 hour flight. Just abit more than the 4 hour (or, more like, seems like 4 hour) drive to Rehoboth.
2. Martha’s Vineyard is about 3 hours away if you fly into Providence and take the ferry over.
These are my alternatives, but these places interest me quite abit more than the DE beaches anyway.
Boat service from the Riverfront to Lewes is an awesome idea, though.
The beach traffic is only congested in one direction. Solution – go in the other direction.
On the big holiday weekends, go explore the cities. You’ll have the place to yourselves. See the museums, take in a baseball game, tour some neighborhoods, see some architectural wonders, go to a good restaurant. You’ll probably find discount hotel packages too.
The other problem with fighting traffic to get to the beach – once you finally get there, all those other people are there too. Like most beaches, Delaware beaches suck for day tripping, and that is done deliberately. To really enjoy it you need a place to stay for a few days at least.
Or try the less lemming-like beaches, like some of the lesser-known Chesapeake Bay towns.
Unfortunately though there is no real substitute for the boardwalk experience on a hot Saturday in July, especially if you have kids. So we get in the car and go.
I wonder if the opposite is true. Removing roads reduces traffic congestion? Perhaps we should hike to the beach.
Forget more roads. We need a quick rail system from Wilmington to Dover and then to the Beach. The republicans have discussed selling Rt. l, for profit. Give them more roads and the cost goes up. We need a light rail system in this state, lets get with the future.
I wonder if the opposite is true. Removing roads reduces traffic congestion?
Apparently, yes:
The increase in demand was noted by Robert Moses in the 1930s as he was building out highways in and around New York City. Every time they built a new road, it quickly filled up and needed to be widened and more roads built.
In more recent times, whenever we build new high-speed roads, people become more willing to live farther from work and use the new road for commuting, which fills it up quickly. So road-building is also a stimulus for development. However, it can also work against the modern trend back toward walkable, workable town development.
Awesome post/thread :-).
You could always build hundreds or even thousands of houses around the beach area to relieve the congestion of the people living in the part of the state that supports the rest of it.
Of course, you’d have to actually have jobs and multiple places for people to work. Not just funland or as a waiter at a restaurant opened 5 weeks a year.
But As a big corporate developer I say build more roads god damnit. (There’s dozen more Wilmington Trusts out there!)
Jobs be damned. Houses first, then the jobs will come. Just watch..I swear.
My plan, if you elect me is to Build thousands more houses in the dumbest part of the state where you can go tens of miles to the nearest university (If you consider DSU an actual school of course) and …
Oh and if we don’t build more roads, who the hell is Fierro and Son’s going to pay to get elected?
Crossing over 1 to go West during the season is challenging. BUT, while I am waiting for a space to get across I sit there gloating because I live here and they don’t! Despite the traffic, it’s nice to live in a place where everyone wants to come to. Sometimes the glass is half full.
clearly you havent lived here long if you have trouble crossing 1.
Almost all roads leading to the beach in any direction need another lane. Rt 24, Rt 26, Rt 9, Rt 1, Rt 113… all of them are almost unsafe on Fridays and Sundays.
As a pizza delivery expert, I can tell you the local impact is that it will take you 2x as long, without exaggeration, to get somewhere on those days.
Quite honestly, they should look into a lane sharing measure like the Bay Bridge does. On Rt 1 and 113 we could easily shut down to 1 lane in the opposite direction and go 3 lanes in the heavy flow of traffic.
I haven’t lived here long enough. Still, I have no problem crossing and if I’m in a hurry I take the back roads. But sometimes I just like to wait cause I can.
what constitutes a pizza delivery expert?
Domino’s uses that term. I forget how hokie it sounds after 5 years.
Ask me anything, I can probably answer it.