Description
I hear from friends and relatives that this has been a problem for years. Every week or two, I see some kind of rear-ending on this on-ramp. Tow trucks and police cars are constantly bringing traffic there to a standstill. One need only look at the shoulder of the on-ramp to see all kinds of smashed car debris -- taillight shards and bumper scraps. Even if you're not involved in an accident here, it's still incredibly difficult to wait at the yield sign and crane your neck far over your left shoulder to try and merge onto Rt. 9. Something's gotta change here to make it safer!
51 Comments
Anonymous (Guest)
Sat., June 26, 2010
Just today, we saw a Prius that had been rear-ended at this site; the damage seemed fairly significant. As always, a trooper was inspecting both vehicles.
Some years ago, my Honda Accord was struck from behind at this same place. The damages: $1800.
This hazardous ramp needs to be modified. Dan is so right in his comment: "all kinds of smashed car debris -- taillight shards and bumper scraps" can be seen there. Imagine how much insurance companies have paid out as a result of accidents on this ramp.
Public Safety (Guest)
Common sense (Guest)
Anonymous (Guest)
Anonymous (Guest)
Anonymous (Guest)
you have to pay attention to what's going on in front of you. don't blame the people who stop, go, stop, and then go again. is it annoying? yes. is it the bluehair's fault that you rear-ended her? no. you should pay attention.
As for this intersection, yes fix it. While you're at it spend a few million and fix this whole section of the highway. I can't think of another highway that I've ever been on that has traffic lights. Only in Middletown.
Joe486 (Guest)
Anonymous (Guest)
Anonymous (Guest)
Anonymous (Guest)
Mark (Guest)
Anonymous (Guest)
how many accidents have taken place here. A Conn. State Trooper did tell me the average is nearly one a day. There must be statistics on this matter.
Anonymous (Guest)
When Route 9 was first constructed, the northbound traffic lanes merged to one lane on the left. The entrance ramp from Route 17 proceeded onto the right lane of Route 9 without stopping. As the traffic from the south increased, rather than correct this intersection to handle more traffic, the State just put up a stop sign and stop light (remember the light?). By the way, didn't Joey Serra run on a promise to get this intersection fixed? And he has been re-elected how many times?
While some agressive drivers can cause accidents here, the real problem is the poor design by the State, and their refusal to find a viable solution. For one thing, having to stop and then crane your neck to spot cars racing towards you around a bend at well over the speed limit (where are the cops?) is by its very nature hazardous.
Second, at what other entrance on a controlled-access highway do you have to stop? Other than the Merritt Parkway, I cannot think of any other entrance ramp like this one. At least on the Merritt, the line-of-sight issues are minimal.
This is another joke on Middletown. It needs to get fixed NOW!
saturnine23 (Registered User)
dandlion (Registered User)
Common Sense (Guest)
Anonymous (Guest)
saturnine23 (Registered User)
Common Sense (Guest)
dandlion (Guest)
While the comment's tone makes him/her sound like a condescending troll, Common Sense's solution *will* help people who are familiar enough with the ramp to know about its dangers.
The other day I was thinking "if only there were a way to *force* people to do this by design..." Then it hit me:
Move the stop sign and line to the veeeery end of the ramp. People are making a double stop because the line is too far back to see. This is common in intersections everywhere, but in this intersections it makes for terrible design.
I was under the impression those lines were back that far to allow room for people turning into the lane to your left. Obviously this isn't an issue on an on-ramp.
Can anyone else see a reason it would be unsafe to move the stop line up to a spot where people would not have room to move forward and stop again?
slikkitty (Guest)
In response to Dandlion's suggestion, I agree the crash problem would go away by moving up the stop sign to the very end of the ramp. Problem solved. No more needless crashes between people lined up to merge onto Rte. 9. Would also be superior to Common Sense's suggestion. Waiting and "double-checking" is not possible for 2 reasons (the fact that a person can't look in opposite directions simultaneously and the evidence that the previous driver has already left the situation a few moments before). The issue is not drivers' lack of common sense. We are behaving exactly as the D.O.T. engineers should expect us to given the conditions we are presented with in that traffic scenario.
TRUE common sense dictates that after stopping for the D.O.T. engineers' misplaced stop sign, we drivers stop where we need to at the very end of the ramp. We are already doing that because of common sense. The D.O.T. needs to take the down the artificially-far back stop sign because it goes against common sense to stop there that far removed from a highway merge. But if the D.O.T. is so committed to having us stop so far back from the place where we really need to stop, then they need to put in about 3 more stop signs between the current one and the true end of the ramp. That way, we will override our common sense and follow the sign's instruction to stop far short of where we should be stopping (so as to be aware of the upcoming highway merge as the D.O.T. apparently wants to convey to us) AND we will also be made aware of the hazard presented by the other drivers ahead of us lining up to merge by keeping us looking forward.
This highway merge design is flawed because human beings can not look in opposite directions simultaneously (fact) and fear of a highway crash is what is on people's minds as they merge onto a highway and an artificially setback stop sign does not alleviate that concern enough to keep people from stopping at the end of the ramp (evidence).
mgirl (Guest)
Dirty Sanchez (Guest)
Common Sense is exactly right. Make sure the person in front of you has gone before you start worrying about pulling out of there. Either that or take an alternate route to get on Rt 9.
Until the state fixes this whole area of Rt 9 then this is what must be done. I have never seen a more messed up area of highway than what is Rt 9 in Middletown.
me too (Guest)
terrible (Guest)
Safety First (Guest)
dandlion (Guest)
Will everyone give feedback on the bit of guerrilla signage I added to this ramp?
My hope was that if people could learn/be reminded of the specific danger of the ramp (rear ending someone if they stop short), that we'd have fewer accidents.
If you see accidents on the ramp, please post them here so we can try to see if a sign like the one I made seems to help.
If it does help, maybe we can petition the DOT to put up a real sign that would last longer and be more visible.
Bill F (Guest)
People who stop twice are not to blame. They may have to stop because oncoming traffic changes lanes or because they misjudged the gap (often because cars coming northbound refuse to slow down to the speed limit, or actually speed up).
If you have your foot on the accelerator, you should know exactly what's in front of you. Unfortunately, because of the poor design, that means whipping your head back and forth from backwards over your left shoulder to in front of you.
saturnine23 (Registered User)
Dandlion, the sign is fantastic! I hope the Powers That Be let it remain, because I think it's a great start.
I think the next question is: Who do we contact to try to get this ramp fixed? Does anybody know anyone? Do we contact representatives (city and/or state)? The D.O.T.? Does anybody have a friend in the police or fire department, or know a local wrecker/towing business who might be able to give a professional statement about how bad the ramp is? It would be great to have someone willing to go on the record...
Captain (Guest)
There must be statistics on how many accidents occur at this entrance ramp! Think of the cost to the drivers, the insurance companies, not to mention taking the troopers away from more pressing matters. Just what is the cost of this poorly designed ramp?
We can go on and on about this issue, but we have yet to see any input from the D.O.T. At least these postings are a warning to drivers to proceed with caution/
flashing speed sign (Guest)
Anonymous (Guest)
Joe (Guest)
miles (Guest)
Anonymous (Guest)
Guess what! There was another accident at this entrance yesterday, Aug. 18, which required a towing for one of the cars and the summoning of two State Troopers. The second car, which had been rear-ended, had some serious dents as a result. Are we surprised?
The beat goes on and on and on.
Joe (Guest)
Public Safety (Guest)
Dandlion (Guest)
Anonymous (Guest)
saturnine23 (Registered User)
I would encourage everyone who's posted here to submit a complaint to the DOT at this link. It takes 3 minutes, max.
http://www.dotdata.ct.gov/contacts/contact.aspx
I just sent mine in. A few notes:
1) Be polite. The DOT is our ally; they have the power to fix the ramp.
2) Make sure you note the location of the ramp. You may want to give the same location that I did as the very first line of your message:
"Problem with Rt. 9 N on-ramp in Middletown (where Rt. 17 merges onto Rt. 9 N, near Harbor Park)"
3) Refer them to this SeeClickFix link (http://seeclickfix.com/issues/42502), and tell them that you're one of the people who has posted here.
On an unrelated note, if you see accidents on the ramp, try and take pictures (even if it's with your camera phone) and post them here! Pull over if you have to. A picture is worth a thousand words.
saturnine23 (Registered User)
saturnine23 (Registered User)
Just had a great conversation with Kevin Nursick from the DOT -- he gave me a phone call right away.
The long story short is that there is not enough funding for the DOT to take on any sort of project to fix the ramp. Fixing the ramp is just a part of fixing this entire screwed-up section of Rt. 9, and Kevin said that preliminary sketches of a fix "come in the 10s of millions of dollars range, and would involve property acquisitions and major construction."
Kevin was careful to point out that that doesn't mean it's impossible for them to do, by any stretch. But he explained that the larger DOT situation here in the state involves
1) an overburdened transportation budget, and
2) lots of aged infrastructure that is reaching the end of its useful life at the same time. (The average age of a bridge in CT is 50 years! All of these old structures from the 50s and 60s -- i.e. the last time there was major spending on our roads -- now require urgent, intensive care.)
This means that the DOT essentially has its hands tied *maintaining* current infrastructure, not to even mention building NEW infrastructure.
Kevin elaborated that there hasn't been a new transportation bill in years -- just resolutions that keep allocating the DOT the same budget. It sounds like they're having quite a nightmare, trying to use the same budget to deal with infrastructure that's only getting older. If you'll recall, President Obama even mentioned our aging transportation infrastructure in the State of the Union Address.
Long story short, the roadblocks keeping the ramp from being fixed are much bigger than Middletown or even CT.
Kevin was very good about explaining that the DOT knows the ramp is less-than-ideal, that it's not how they would construct it today if they could, and that it's one of many worthy projects that the Department would love to tackle, given the budget.
Start talking to your representatives about infrastructure.
norque83 (Registered User)
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