Let’s hear it for Route 128: Negotiating the Greater Boston beltway is a harrowing rite-of-passage for newly-minted drivers and an annoyance for all drivers forced to sit in traffic for an hour while the State Police clear an accident.
Thanks to the federal government, Route 128 drivers are getting the added thrill of negotiating newly-renumbered exits. If you think you’re taking Exit 12 to Crafts Road to get to Gloucester, think again: Exit 12 is now Exit 55.
If you think Exit 28 remains the southbound exit at the I-95 junction, you would be wrong. That exit has been rechristened Exit 37.
Wondering why you are saddled with this added driving annoyance? The federal government in 2009 mandated “mile post-based numbering” (a decidedly government-sounding concept) for interstates across the nation.
According to a Federal Highway Administration description, the numbering system for roadside mile markers and exit signs “show the number of miles from where the Interstate route entered the state in which you are traveling.”
“The counting always begins at the state line in the south (for north-south routes) and in the west (for east-west routes). So, mile marker numbers always get larger as you travel east or north.”
This logic will explain why exit numbers that formerly increased as drivers traveled southbound on 128 will decrease under the federal renumbering.
Thoroughly confused by now? Take a deep breath, exhale, and contemplate the supposed benefits of renumbering. Drivers, according to federal highway officials, will be able to determine distances to destinations better thanks to renumbered exit signs. Emergency workers will also be able to find accident locations with greater speed and ease.
Both of these renumbering attributes sound like they were written for a 1960s driver, not someone motoring along with onboard GPS guidance with precise to the tenth-of-a-mile distance calculations.
It goes without saying that emergency professionals know local highways like the proverbial backs of their hands and are experts at getting to a crash or medical emergency fast.
Massachusetts, along with New Hampshire and Delaware, are late to the party when it comes to exit renumbering. Every other state has already renumbered and their drivers are apparently motoring along smiling and counting their miles.
If there is a silver lining in exit renumbering, it is probably the opportunity for Boston area drivers to embrace a new topic to gripe and grumble about. “Stay in your lane,” or “What’s the #$@&% hold up?” will be replaced with “Where’s my #$@&% exit?”
And don’t even get us started about the mess this has made of the Mass Pike.
