The small town of Breezewood, Pennsylvania, is infamous for its 2.5 mile-long detour that forces drivers to navigate through a confusing interchange. This detour, connecting Washington DC and Baltimore with Pittsburgh and the Midwest, has become a chokepoint for traffic and a headache for commuters.
In a recent video titled “Transportation Engineer Fixes the Roads in This Iconic Photo,” WSJ Pro Perfected delves into the challenges faced by transportation engineers in redesigning this interchange. The town of Breezewood has come to depend on the steady stream of visitors passing through, making it a vital part of the local economy. But with the current layout causing traffic jams and confusion for drivers, a redesign is necessary.
The video discusses the possibility of building a cloverleaf interchange or adding ramps to improve traffic flow. However, the question remains – why was it built like this in the first place? The need to balance economic interests with efficient transportation infrastructure poses a dilemma for engineers and town officials alike.
As experts in engineering and design, WSJ Pro Perfected explores the different options available to make Breezewood more navigable for drivers while preserving the town’s economic viability. From analyzing the current traffic patterns to proposing potential solutions, the video offers valuable insights into the complex world of transportation engineering.
In the end, the question remains – what’s next for Breezewood and the iconic interchange that has defined the town for decades? As transportation engineers work to find a solution, the future of this small Pennsylvania town hangs in the balance.
Watch the video by The Wall Street Journal
Video “Transportation Engineer Fixes the Roads in This Iconic Photo | WSJ Pro Perfected” was uploaded on 08/26/2024 to Youtube Channel The Wall Street Journal
So I guess no climate change at Breezewood.
My handle is CA Driver and even I see that this country is terminally carbrained. Why can't WSJ see it?
God knows how much time I lost in that area. 😢😢😢
I think what this shows is that local governments should never base their entire economy on people making pit stops in their town, similarly you should never base your whole economy on tourism.
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.
Great job with this video, thanks!
Breezewood used to be a town, and it's slowly not becoming a service point. What ruined it? Cars.
Cars practically ruined everything in America, and you cannot justify highway widening, costing over $100B, just to "save" 2 minutes off your commute, is not a good idea. e.g. Katy Freeway in Texas.
Yall out of things to talk about
No need to save Breezewood, the place did not survive Covid and there is really nothing left of it.
I live in this region pretty close to Breezewood. Please fix this mess!
Build the bypass for the trucks and a Buc-ees for car travelers. Connect the abandoned turnpike, hiking, and bucolic area farmland to the business area. Win-win.
trucks going on roundabout?. Destroy the commerce so you can grab a latte… Nice
Save the lot lizards! 🦎
Ooooh, I checked out the site online, and now I want to explore the old abandoned turnpike route by bike!
There you have it fellow Europeans! You can now come visit. Problem solved 😅
More like a burocratic bottleneck
So they took a meme about a stroad and turned it into a video about fixing a highway.
That kinda cohnters the meme 😂
This is really the plot of cars 🫡
We need to build 1000 lane highways to solve traffic
It's not just a Traffic Engineering problem but also a urban planning one. It would require to completely reinvent Breezewood if they want to keep busnisses thriving with a bypass. They could turn it into a European style pedestrian village connected to the abandoned turnpike and surrounded with parking and gas stations or even something like a Thai style rest area (those are literally villages!)
When have interstates ever cared or should ever care what happens to a town that is bypassed by the interstate? This is why I never want to live in goofy states like this where something this ridiculous would ever be considered.
Toll roads in the US should be federally banned. Period.
Ahhh. I wish the engineer would have said the roadway/lanes were REPURPOSED for bikes, a wider sidewalk, etc. Drivers already feel and behave as if they are the only ones allowed to use the street and using language like a lane was "taken" just reinforces that. Words really do matter.
Additionally, would have been cool to discuss how cars are a very inefficient way to move lots of people compared to the capacity of buses, trains, and bike lanea and how land use matters. They were on the right track talking about making that town a destination. Why not improve it for people who live there? Build dense housing, give people options in how they get around (quick, reliable, and frequent buses and/or trains, safe bike/scooter lanes, wide sidewalks, raised crosswalks), etc.
Glad these topics are being discussed more and more people are seeing the damage car dominance is inflicting.
Remove nearby rest stops and promote the town's BUSINESSES (not the town itself which no one cares about in the grand scheme) and perhaps centralize the parking because once I'm in the car i want to move on.
I’ve been through Breezewood quite a few times – morning, noon & night – and I’ve never seen traffic issues worse than anywhere else. It flows better than any mall area along RT 30!
Them guys took out the perkins
Fake news. They don't got the perkins no more.
"Diverging Diamond is too much land"
immediately suggests a cloverleaf
Oj
Have you heard about a city called Bengaluru?
This is the best AD for Cities Skylines. Looks like 18 hours of my day will be spent well now
Roundabouts are a scam, they are not a viable solution, any engineer that says roundabouts solve problems should hand in their degree and be sued.. Roundabouts create more problems than they solve, using roundabouts is a bad idea, this "expert" in the video, he is so wrong in every aspect of what he said..
As a truck driver, I’ve spent quite a few nights sleeping at one of the two truck stops in Breezewood. If someone decided to build a Waffle House, I’m sure more people would stop. It would be better than those restaurants at the T/A or Flying J.
I knew this was Breezewood just from the photo. Lovely town 😂
Cloverleaf would be a disaster. It's a nogo because of all the downsides and it's limitations for traffic flow. A diverging diamond is a good solution but a true stack or a turbine would be more efficient if larger to build.
2nd solution is obviously best. It is cheaper to build, requires no alteration to the toll plaza, and has the smallest footprint, while still allowing most traffic to bypass the downtown area. However, the road diet on route 30 is poorly thought through. This transportation engineer is applying urban solutions to a tiny town with fewer than 2000 residents. Once most of the through traffic has been removed from the downtown area, a much simpler road layout would be possible, but encouraging dangerous left turn should not be part of the design. If you are going to build roundabouts, You might as well put up a median wall and have vehicles loop round and turn right instead. This is also safer for the newly introduced pedestrians in the traffic mix who otherwise would be at risk of being run over by drivers laser focused on oncoming motor vehicles while planning their needlessly dangerous left turns across two lanes of fast moving traffic.
Just by pass breeze wood. There is literally nothing special about the place. It's literally the Buzzlight year meme when it comes to "Special" towns and truck stops.
And for the business who are already there. Just take your business else where. None of the 8.1 million pass care.
Tariffs are on the table for U.S. importers, whatever the election outcome: https://on.wsj.com/3YTHHSi