Pennsylvania Freeways

For many years I have traveled the freeways throughout the United States of America. I have been on the freeways of almost every State in the Union and have found very few that the common understanding man could not maneuver with ease. My history with freeways goes back to my days of serving a mission in Northern California where I learned what an asphalt jungle was and what a traffic jam really was. I have had a career of over 38 years of building freeways. I have worked on freeways in Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Texas, Minnesota, Montana, California, Colorado, and New Mexico. I have driven cross country from the west coast to the east coast and absolutely nothing in my experience has prepared me for what we have found in Pennsylvania. The state roads are many and are so narrow that you wonder if you will be able to pass a vehicle coming in the opposite direction without hitting head on. I would guess that most roads have 2-10 foot lanes with no shoulders. In the towns the fronts of the houses and stores are within 4 feet of the roadway. Most of these roads were build in the horse and buggy days but I sometimes wonder if even a horse and buggy could pass on the roads through the towns. When you get out into the country side where the Amish live you see the horse and buggy and it is impossible to pass them on these roads. I suppose this would not be too bad but the freeways are even worse!
In the 1950’s when Eisenhower proposed a national highway system called the Interstate System, nick named Freeways, it was planned to have a system that controlled access to these roadways and allowed free ingress and egress to and from the roadways at controlled points not to be less than 1 mile apart. Thus the nickname “Freeway” came into being. The design called for acceleration and deceleration ramps that would allow vehicles to merge into and out of flowing traffic in a safe and orderly way. As they Interstate System developed and car speeds increased the standard to the length of the acceleration and deceleration ramps adjusted for the size and speed of the traffic and the ability of the vehicle to accelerate.
So what happened in Pennsylvania? The Freeways are narrow with no acceleration lanes and not merge lanes. Some Freeways have 10 or 11 foot lanes with little or no shoulder. There are no, I repeat NO merge lanes. The taper from the on ramp to the speeding traffic is about 50 feet. You see cars stopped on the ramps and sometimes lined up all the way up the ramp trying to find an opening so that they can jump out into the traffic without being hit by the oncoming traffic. When you do take your life in your hands and do jump out into the traffic I believe that those who are coming down the lane of traffic speed up and try to hit anyone trying to get onto the freeway. Once you get onto the freeway you have to continually dodge trying to keep from destroying the front end of your car in the chuckholes found in the pavement or to squeeze between a vehicle on the inside lane to your left and someone who has parked on the right side shoulder. You just cross your fingers and anything else you can cross and hope that you do not hit. If you have to stop on any of their bridges heaven help you as there is no shoulder to stop on only the traffic lane. In addition to trying to dodge chuck holes there are drainage structures along the sides of the road which are about 4 feet square and about 3 inches below the road surface. Try and miss those puppies!!!! Trying to find the on ramps is another experience in futility. There is nothing common as to where they will be. We have even had ramps that were blocks away from the freeway and we would not have been able to find the ramp with our trusty Dora (GPS). Most of the interchanges are half clover leaf (on and off ramps intersect the cross road at the same place) and if you are not watching what you are doing you will miss the ramp because it is not on the right side where you normally would think it would be, but on left side of the road you are traveling where you have to make a left hand turn through traffic to get to the ramp.
Now before you believe that all freeways in PA are like this description, let me assure you that is not the case. When we come into Pennsylvania while traveling to Harrisburg we traveled on Interstate 76. It was a beautiful well cared for freeway that met all of the modern day standard for freeways. I guess it really was not a freeway but it is called a turnpike. It had all of the standards for a freeway with access controlled interchanges, acceleration and deceleration lands, and ample merge lane distances. The only problem for us however is that the turnpikes are Toll Roads. That’s right it cost us $90 in tolls to drive from the western boarder of Pennsylvania to Harrisburg on this modern day PA Freeway called a “Turnpike”. In PA the main roadways are called Pikes instead of roads. Like for example in Utah we have the Redwood Road. Here it would be called the Redwood Pike. The roads that are toll roads are called Turnpikes. Kinda sounds like a “turncoat” doesn’t it.
So if you are traveling in the eastern states and you don’t have any spare change stay away from the Turnpikes or Expressways or you will pay a hefty toll. If you don’t have the money to pay the toll they will let you go through with a big smile on their face as they take your picture and record your license plate and send you a bill that is double the toll and a $25 fee for not paying. I still don’t understand why they rest of the roads (pikes) in PA are not in top notch shape with the amount they charge to travel on the Turnpikes.