What This Iconic Photo Says About America’s Road Planning | WSJ Pro Perfected

An infamous interchange in Breezewood, Pa., forces drivers through a miles-long detour. But redesigning it could cripple the town’s economy, which has come to depend on the visitors. The route connects Washington DC and Baltimore with Pittsburgh and goes all the way through the Midwest. If you take that traffic away, what happens to the town?

WSJ explains why it’s a traffic chokepoint and spoke with a transportation engineer on how to fix it.

Chapters:
0:00 Infamous traffic chokepoint
1:06 Building a cloverleaf
2:25 Building ramps
3:26 Why was it built like this?
4:40 Make Breezewood more
7:49 What’s next?

Pro Perfected
Experts in engineering and design break down a ubiquitous problem, examining how the world is built and what can make it better.

#Infrastructure #Breezewood #WSJ

[Basta]

Whenever we talk about trains, its always "look at how much this costs!". With roads, no costs is ever mentioned.

[NotJustBikes]

There's no solution to car traffic except viable alternatives to driving.

[Zalis]

After a certain point, the businesses' goal of getting more traffic on that road kind of becomes self-defeating. When it's that congested, drivers won't want to make a stop, because it can take forever to turn back on and get to the lane they need. And on an emotional level, drivers may resent Breezewood for interrupting their Interstate journey with stoplights, and plan to make their stops elsewhere.

[horus]

99% of civil engineers quit 1 lane before permanently solving traffic

[danieljensen]

This demonstrates so many problems with planning in the US. Local communities can force millions of drivers to sit in traffic just because they are afraid of losing business. Millions are spent lobbying for an obvious change. And yet if anyone suggests a train, every Karen and their mother files a lawsuit, and then people complain that the train is too expensive. The difference between the US and places like Europe, China, Japan and an increasing number of middle income countries is not just our obsession with cars. It's also our unwillingness to allow centralized planning of our infrastructure. This video is a great example. Yes, good that someone is finally fixing the interchange, but would this even be a problem if 80% of the drivers were on a high speed or even just regional train?

[jalfredl]

Adding one more lane to fix traffic is like saying adding a notch on your belt to fix obesity.

[kibble-net]

If inconveniencing millions of drivers is a necessity for your town to exist, then your town probably shouldn't exist.

[rixxroxxk]

I’m a truck driver and I will drive 100 miles out of the way to avoid Breezewood. Heading west from Baltimore? I use I-68 to I-79

[bonefishboards]

I've been to Breezewood PA. There is no reason to save that town.

[legalmentealan]

Is public transportation illegal in the US? 🤔

[MikeFife]

The people who improve traffic snarls must be the most amicable and reasonable engineers in the world. Your opus project is a 15+ year revamp, everyone's unhappy in the building stage, decades of strife, and after 30 years no one remembers who designed it, and will still complain about traffic.

[ThunderTiger]

I like how WSJ doesnt even get the meme and thinks its about the chokepoint haha

[bagheerab]

Make it a destination people WANT to go to, rather than an obstacle course they're FORCED to go through.

[arnauds]

I just checked and Washington dc to Pittsburg is about 300 km (186 miles in a straight line, or 4 hours by car according to google maps, or 2.5 days for a slow bald eagle), or just a little bit more than Brussels and Paris. You can go between these last two cities by train in 1h 22 min and it costs 30 euros (or 33 us dollars, or 5 dollars more than the price of gas for your empty ford f150). And you can work the whole time.

[aureliusatreides]

I knew this was Breezewood within one second of watching.

[itsjeffreyab]

I am from this area and hate going through the interstate traffic just to see family. PLEASE separate 30 and the Interstate. Also, rather than Breezewood, PA most people stop at the truck stop on the Interstate, Hancock or Berkeley Springs instead.

[johnstanczyk]

Ah, I still have fond memories of Breezewood. It was the only Taco Bell that my parents would put up with us going to.
While the new ramps did speed up the trip, I will always miss that Taco Bell.

[kwekwlos]

I don't typically watch WSJ but I appreciate this video immensely, please keep spreading awareness of the need for road reform in America, it is a disaster right now. The "road diet" idea blew my mind, I sincerely hope it takes off across the country

[cridenhowo]

"Diverging Diamond is too much land"
*immediately suggests a cloverleaf*

this is why I can't stand journalism

[Nicksonian]

Breezewood is out in the middle of nowheresville. Even if the connection between I-70 and the Pa. Turnpike were completed, many travelers would still stop because there isn’t anything else for miles. Let Breezewood sink or swim without holding travelers hostage.