How to improve a poorly-designed highway

There's a long-standing tradition in the computer industry. (It may be in other industries as well, but my experience has been in high tech.) When there's a problem that either too difficult for the development team to fix or it's a problem that's found too late in the development cycle, such that fixing it would delay the release, the problem is fixed in documentation. Meaning that the manual, help file, or release notes will describe how to work around the problem. The original problem is still there, but the team has absolved itself by telling the user that there is a problem.

Well, the Mass. Highway Department has found a way to fix bad highway design: fix it in documentation. Put up big signs that tell the drivers that the next few miles are a mess.

This sign is set just as Interstates 190 and 290 merge. Whether you're coming toward Worcester from the north or east, you'll go through a stretch of highway that goes from three lanes to two to five to four to three, all within a mile or so. Then, the driving gets weird and slow as the highway snakes through the city.

It's a testimony to the drivers in and around the city that there aren't more accidents in this stretch of road.