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Keller @ Large: Good Bet Casino Will Snarl Boston Traffic

BOSTON (CBS) – I was out of town this weekend visiting family, and let's just say the drive home from Logan was an adventure.

I avoided the Ted like the plague because of the Mass Pike Pru Tunnel work, but once I got through the Sumner Tunnel, the problems began. Storrow Drive was – as the BZ traffic network folks like to say – stall and crawl, and this was well before the Red Sox game traffic emptied into it.

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Soldiers Field Road was just as bad trying to get past Harvard's answer to the Big Dig, the endless repair job on the Weeks Bridge.

All in all, not exactly a relaxing Sunday drive. Pity the poor out-of-towners who thought the Pike would be any quicker.

Which brings us to today's topic, the traffic issues raised by the two competing greater Boston casino proposals.

Both plans rely heavily on customer access via already-nightmarish traffic bottlenecks, Route 1A for the Suffolk Downs casino, Sullivan Square and the Route 16/Route 28 intersection for the Everett casino.

Everyone involved is saying the right thing.

Both casino suitors pledge to spend millions to address the issues; the gambling commission says their plans to ease the crush will be a huge factor in their deliberations.

Sounds good, but common sense tells you there are limits to how much of their profit margins these businesses will sacrifice to mitigate problems that former state transportation Sec. Fred Salvucci calls "unmitigatable."

And my Spider-sense starts tingling when they talk about customers using the T, or showing up at off-peak traffic times, as if that's a realistic portrayal of their target demographic's behavior.

One of these casinos will be built, bet on it.

Just don't bet on it doing anything but making a bad traffic situation significantly worse

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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