Opinion
Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Cameron on Transportation: Why Widening Interstate 95 Won’t Help

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Gov. Dannel P. Malloy wants to widen Interstate 95 to alleviate traffic congestion and commissioned a $1.2 million study to support the idea. But I found a similar study from 2004 — State Project No. 56-245, I-95 Commuter Shoulders — that looked at the idea and rejected it for a number of reasons. Trust me, it wasn’t easy to get hold of the earlier study. I knew it existed, but somehow it had disappeared from the state Department of Transportation website.

Opinion
Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Cameron on Transportation: Trains Slip Sliding on Wet Leaf Goo is a Bigger Mess Than You May Think

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What is more beautiful than fall in New England? The autumn leaves make even the most mundane daily commute seem idyllic — unless you’re taking the train. Yes, it’s time for our annual battle against “slip slide,” that dangerous rail condition caused by wet leaves on our tracks. Mind you, this is no small problem. In past years as many as 50 or 60 trains a week were delayed by the issue when sloppy, wet leaves turned steel rails into the railroad equivalent of a skating rink.

Opinion
Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Cameron on Transportation: Staying Safe on the Train

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“I’m afraid to get back on the train,” said the trembling woman, obviously shaken and possibly injured in the Hoboken terminal train crash of a NJ Transit train earlier this year. The shock of what she had seen was slowly sinking in and she was wondering how she was going to resume her life and its daily train commute after this horrific experience. Whether it’s a derailment, collision or act of terrorism, riding the train is proving potentially perilous. The Fairfield – Bridgeport collision and derailment in May of 2013 left 65 of the 250 passengers injured, Months later, the Spuyten Duyvil derailment was even worse, killing four and injuring 61. The recent Hoboken crash killed one and injured more than a hundred.

Opinion
Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Cameron on Transportation: The Billion Dollar Bridge

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Could it really cost $1 billion to replace the 562-foot Walk railroad bridge in South Norwalk? Or is there a cheaper alternative that CDOT is hiding from us. We all know the woes of this 120-year-old swing bridge that sometimes refuses to close, stranding thousands of Metro-North and Amtrak riders. But the plan to replace it (using $161 million in Federal Sandy relief money) has ballooned from $600 million to $1 billion thanks to added rail yards and such. Many in Norwalk are opposed because of the cost, others because they will lose their land by eminent domain.

Opinion
Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Cameron on Transportation: Politicians and Promises

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I don’t trust politicians. They tend to over-promise and sometimes just plain lie, telling you what you want to hear and then doing the opposite. I’m not talking about Clinton and Trump. I mean right here in Connecticut where our state representatives and state senators were all recently up for election. They’re all talking about “fixing transportation”, but I don’t trust them.

Opinion
Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Cameron on Transportation: Ferry Boats Are Not the Answer

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You’re crawling along I-95 or cruising on Metro-North and you look out your window to the south. There’s Long Island Sound, glistening in the sunlight. “Wow,” you think, “I sure wish I was commuting out there on the water.”

So why is it that we’ve never harnessed ferry boats for our commutation? There are many good reasons:

SLOWER SPEED: Fast ferries can make about 30 knots (35 mph) in open waters, half the speed of a train. But to reach downtown areas in major cities like New Haven, Bridgeport, Norwalk and Stamford, they have to sail up rivers and inlets with 5 knot speed limits.

Opinion
Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Don’t Blame the Trucks for I-95 Congestion: Cameron on Transportation

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When it comes to our horrendous traffic, especially on I-95, everybody wants to find blame with someone other than themselves. “Who are these people and why are they driving now, on “my” road?” they ask. The easiest scapegoats are trucks: those behemoths that lumber along in the right and center lanes (because they are not allowed to drive in the left-hand lane). But I suggest that it’s not trucks that are responsible for our traffic. It’s the rest of us in our single-occupancy vehicles (SOVs).