Monday, August 14, 2000

Traveling on Bay State highways this summer? Take a number.

Or better yet, bring your own, because there's a good chance the route number you're looking for isn't there.

``What's with Route 28? The signs don't exist,'' said Paul Schlichtman after attempting to trace the road northbound from the Cape into Boston.

Calling the route ``one of the worst offenders on a list of state highways that can't be followed,'' the Arlington transportation buff pointed to the federal government's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices to prove that state highway officials weren't going by the book.

``Section 2D-30,'' he said. `` `The advance Route Turn Assembly shall be erected in advance of an intersection where a turn must be made to remain on the indicated route,' '' he said, quoting the source that state officials must follow in order to get federal highway money.

In plain English, that means marker signs are supposed to be placed before the route turns so drivers know where to go. But that's not what we found on Route 27 in Sharon, where drivers can easily miss the left turn at Main Street just past the T station.

Ditto for twists along Route 129 in Lynn, as well as any number of rotaries, such as Westboro's, which unsuspecting drivers won't know is the intersection of Routes 30 and 135 until they're in it.

But Schlichtman is right that Route 28 takes the cake.

``If you're lucky, you might actually be able to follow Route 28 to Boston, but to go beyond the Boston-Milton border is a real challenge,'' he said.

Joe, a snow cone vendor in Mattapan Square, agreed. ``It's Blue Hill Avenue. I don't see any signs marked `Route 28.' ''

Dorchester's Mike Brooks knew the route's secret identity, but said he'd be happier if fewer suburbanites did. ``It doesn't fool anybody. They still come down here. I would prefer that they go somewhere else. It causes the insurance to inflate for everybody here because there're a lot of accidents.''

Yet not everyone using the route is a regular commuter, as Brookline's Gail Ghitelman said. ``I was on a bicycle trip and we looked on a map and followed 28. And all of a sudden the signs all stop and we're in the middle of Mattapan,'' she said.

Had it been marked, Ghitelman and her fellow riders could have continued on Blue Hill to Seaver to Columbus to Arlington in the Back Bay, where the first marker since Milton appears. ``Yeah,'' she said. ``I've seen Route 28 signs in that area. I've never figured out where it goes.''

Mass Highway spokesman Doug Cope said the missing signs are due to a jurisdictional snafu between his department and the city, which maintains part of the road.

``While it is not state highway through Boston and we do not do maintenance, such as snow plowing, we are responsible for the maintenance of signs through that area,'' he said.

``The problem is because we don't patrol that road on a normal basis, if no one requests the sign, we don't know that they're gone. We have a similar situation throughout the state on roads that are municipally maintained.''

But, he said, his department would be happy to replace them.

``If someone requests a sign and gives us the location, we'll put them up,'' he said.

That sounds simple enough. Of course, they'll have to know what route they're on first.

Got a commuting gripe? Write to the Roads Scholar at onyourside@bostonherald.com.

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