Massachusetts Route 2. Arguably one of the most important stretches of asphalt and concrete that crosses through our town’s borders. It’s a highway that is the gateway for nearly all of us to the rest of the state. If you need to get onto Interstate 495 or 95, then Route 2 is probably your quickest and fastest bet to get there. But Route 2 is also a devil in disguise. We sit on the western portion of what I might consider to be the most painful nine miles out of this entire highway’s existence. Maybe you’ve experienced it yourself? Ever gotten stuck behind a row of cars at the traffic circle near the now-closed Concord Correctional Institution? Have you ever been cruising comfortably at a reasonable 65 miles per hour (because you know that 45 on such a wide highway is just blatantly idiotic) and then the traffic that was solid green turns yellow, and you have to slam on your brakes to stop in time?
Yeah. I hate it too. And it kills me that MassDOT isn’t doing anything.
Background
Route 2’s history is surprisingly rich. In the very beginning it was a rural trail used by the Mohican and Mohawk tribes to cross the Berkshires; hence it was understandably named the Mohawk Trail. When colonists arrived in the 1700’s they expanded the Mohawk Trail to support commerce and trade. The trail was extended and was used to connect upstate New York and Massachusetts to the ever-growing Boston. In the 1800s, the first instances of tolled turnpikes began to appear along the Mohawk Trail. This led to the expansion and coining of the Cambridge, Concord, and the Greenfield-Shelburne Turnpike. As the age of the automobile began to take hold of the United States, the Mohawk Trail was designated as a scenic highway in 1914, which helped boost tourism to the western half of Massachusetts. Then in 1922 the trail was designated as New England Interstate Route 7 (NE-7), as part of the new New England Interstate Highway System. This designation as NE-7 didn’t last long; five years later another renaming program went through, and finally NE-7 became known as Route 2, which is what it is still designated as today. Throughout the 1900s there were a flurry of upgrades throughout the entire length of the highway. The Great Depression in the 1920s and early ‘30s fueled alignment and paving of the highway as part of public works projects. After World War II, Massachusetts sought to modernize the highway, and so large swaths, especially in the busier eastern and central sections of the state, received the upgrade to properly divided highway lanes. I’d argue this was about the time that we see Route 2 look how it is today.
In the 1950s and 1960s the expressway modernization continued, with many sections in Acton, Lexington, and Concord being converted to a limited-access expressway. Coinciding with the rapid acceleration of American suburbia and the boom of highway construction plans were floated to have Route 2 connect to the infamously proposed Inner Belt Expressway project, otherwise known as IBX or the I-695 project. I could rant about the IBX alone, but the summary of how that turned out is that residents of Cambridge and Somerville—two major cities where the IBX would cut through and demolish thousands of homes—protested, and so the IBX never came to fruition. As for Route 2, the compromise was made to stop the highway expansion at Alewife. Part of the redirected spending for IBX to transit included the construction of Alewife Intermodal Station, where a smattering of bus routes and the Red Line terminates.
The Issues
There are a few major issues on the Concord turnpike. You might already know the obvious, but I’ll dive into them just to make sure we really understand the scope of it all.
The first issue is traffic speed. Remember, the Concord turnpike has highway-speed traffic being funneled in on both ends, and because we live in Massachusetts—where we have the most aggressive drivers in all of the United States—these speeds can be 60, 70, sometimes even upwards of 80 miles per hour. The elevated speed of these cars in general means that when these motorists come upon a stoplight, they’re forced to brake. Hard. One inattentive driver equates to a disaster. So yes, the combination of speed and traffic lights, just to let a measly few cars across the road, is a horrible idea.
The second issue is that the Concord turnpike is having an identity crisis. Obviously the traffic lights and intersections are a big sign of that already, but then there’s also these smattering of businesses. There’s a literal farm stand on the side of the eastbound lanes towards Boston. Matter of fact, there’s even a new shopping center springing up as well.
The third issue is the amount of connectors on this stretch. I’ve already mentioned the Corrections Institute, but there’s also Walden Pond and the historical Concord and Lexington battlegrounds. Both of these are major tourist attractions, preserving the history of this region. Walden Pond gets hit with a heavy influx of traffic in the summer months. Then there’s Emerson Hospital. Serving nearly 25 towns, this is the only major full-service hospital in this immediate area (the two other closest hospitals are in Marlborough and Bedford). You have ambulances rushing patients to this hospital, and nine times out of ten they’ll take Route 2. But oh, no, snarling traffic will keep them stuck, shaving off valuable time. Shoulders on this highway are also next to nonexistent, so these ambulances can’t even bypass the lanes of traffic either.
The effects of these are an unpleasant experience for all. People who are trying to get to where they need to go are bogged down by traffic. Pedestrians—especially those who walk from the downtown of Concord to Walden Pond, for example—have to cross what feels like eight lanes of traffic at an intersection. Everyone who drives will surely have increased brake wear if they daily commute this section, as harsh braking impacts brake pad life … full version published on website!