In driving on the Pennsylvania turnpike between Pittsburgh and bucolic Breezewood, there’s a section where its two lanes each way, somewhat curvy and mountainous, no shoulders, & cement barriers on both sides. For this segment all truckers (and most RVs) get into the left hand lane. Are they just trying to prevent passenger vehicles from passing them on a potentially dangerous section of the road (which most cars did anyway) or is there a better, more insidious reason for them doing this? This occured going to and from Pittsburgh so its not an issue about being on the inside track on the curves.
WAG: Do they have to go in tunnels or under underpasses. If so, there’s more vertical clearance in the left lane.
Anybody wanna know the history of the PT? It’s fascinating. Ask and I’ll tell.
Aren’t all the tunnels on the PA Turnpike twin tubes with 2 lanes each?
Seems to me the clearance would be the same in either lane.
Besides, if memory serves me correctly all the tunnels are east of Breezewood.
Like Shiva said, they’re twin tubes- clearance should be the same in either lane. And I can’t say that I noticed this in the tunnel as much as the shoulderless areas (I think the tunnel was actually on 376 instead of the turnpike).
As soon as the shoulderless section ended, the truckers got out of the left hand lane.
WAG of my own: even though there’s no shoulder, cars with breakdowns are still going to have to stop somewhere. I would think that most drivers with 1/10th of a clue probably wouldn’t pick the left lane to sit at a dead stop in (at least I know I wouldn’t).
So I’d say the trucks stay clear of the right lane just in case there’s some bozo with the hood up, because otherwise it might be kind of dicey for them to get out of the way in time, especially if there’s a lot of traffic…
Sure, please do. I’ve spent enough money on the PT to justify learning more about it. 
Breezewood, town of motels. Christ, living there would be like being buried alive. The sole reason this town exists is because you’re forced off I-70 and onto I-76, even though you just crossed I-76 about a half a mile ago. It has to be the worst designed portion of the Eisenhower Interstate System in the entire U.S.
You mean, except for the entirety of the Interstate system surrounding Chicago? And New York City? And the I-90/I-91 interchange near Worcester, MA, which forces you onto a dinky state highway rather than having a simple interchange… and Columbus, OH’s outer loop, I-270, 120 miles of sheer unmitigated hell (not to mention the complete lack of an interstate connecting Ohio’s second largest city, Columbus, with its largest port, Toledo)… Or I-75 in southern Florida where, crossing the Everglades, there is exactly one rest area and no other exits for approximately 120 miles… should I continue? 
Sheesh. I need to do less driving. But Breezewood is, indeed, a very poorly-designed piece of Interstate real estate.
{/hijack}
Mojo: Why not get yourself a CB radio and ask them? OK, maybe that’s not the best idea. But if you’re nice enough, they might actually tell you.
LL
Ok, Montfort here goes. It’s long, and a little complex, so pay attention!
The story of the PT, which opened in 1940 and is reputed to be the very first “modern” highway, began it’s saga in the 1880’s as a bargaining chip between rival railroad magnates.
In fact, the story begins even earlier, in the 1830’s when part of the route was first surveyed. Despite intentions of developing it, no railroad was ever built.
We cut to 1880 in New York State. The controlling interests of the Pennsylvania RR (PRR) began building a new railroad whose route paralleled Commodore Vanderbilt’s New York Central. Vanderbilt was outraged and decided to strike back by creating a line parallel line to PRR’s route. He bought the dormant South Pennsylvania RR which controlled the aforementioned undeveloped right-of-way from Pittsbugh to Harrisburg, PA.
Vanderbilt soon realized that he was holding a diamond in the rough. The South Pennsyvania route was nearly fifty miles shorter, and considerably flatter and straighter than the PRR! When news spread of the value of the new line, steel baron Andrew Carnegie and oil king John Rocefeller, as well as others, added their millions to Vanderbilt’s to develop the route. An army of workmen, surveyors and engineers set about boring tunnels, grading the trackbed, and driving piles in the Susquehanna River for a soon-to-be built bridge.
The PRR, meanwhile was frantic over the impending new rival South Pennsylvania. They retaliated with a rate war between their NY line (remember, the parallel one that started it all?) and Vanderbilt’s New York Central. All of this tit-for-tat was wreaking havoc with stock prices for both railroads, and J.P. Morgan – the biggest fish in the Wall Street pond – did not like chaos in his domain.
He summoned the players on board his yacht in the East River and commanded them to settle the madness. Eventually they relented. Vanderbilt would get to lease the pesky parallel New York railroad, and the PRR would get the unfinished South Pennsyvania. Thus all the rivalry was eliminated.
BUT… the state of Pennsylvania had a law which prevented a railroad from buying a parallel, competing line. After a successful law suit (by the state) prevented the PRR from developing the South Pennsylvania, all work stopped – even though 62% of the tunneling had been bored, and the pilings and abutments for the bridge were completed.
A few attempts to revive work on the line came to naught, and for 55 years the route lay asleep as nature slowly reclaimed it.
But meanwhile, the age of the automobile had been born. In 1938 someone remembered the old, forgotten Southern Pennsylvania route. They canabalized much of the existing half-built infrastructure, finished the rest, paved the right-of-way and thus christened today’s Pennsyvania Turnpike!
Please, don’t even MENTION driving and Pennsylvania in the same thread.
I think Penn DOT should be strung up by their balls and left to the dogs.
Hijack city…
Unc (if I may be so familiar):
The strange exit arrangement at Breezewood goes back about 20 years or so, when the section of turnpike between Breezewood and Fort Littleton was rebuilt to bypass two of the original tunnels. This was done in part to avoid having to cut second tubes (the tunnels were single-bore at the time). For engineering reasons, the bypass starts about a mile west of Breezewood, with the Breezewood exit actually following the old route into town. It would appear that a direct interchange with I-70 could have been constructed, but wasn’t, for cost reasons.
While I’m rattling on, I’ll mention that just east of town Rte. 30 passes under the old road; you can climb up an embankment and find yourself right at the entrance to one of the abandoned tunnels. The dark tunnel and weed-choked superhighway presents a fairly spooky, end-of-civilization aspect. I’ve read that this is soon to be converted to a bike trail.
As for worst-designed portion, I’d nominate a location further east, to where the Turnpike and I-95 cross near Philly, but don’t interchange!
P. S.: the turnpike just ain’t the same since they got rid of the Howard Johnsons. When I was a kid, we always came back from a trip down the 'pike with a bag of HOJO pancake mix…
LL42, Don’t think the CB idea didn’t cross my mind. I’da stopped in Breezewood to ask, but I was passing through late at night on my way back to DC.
Schief2 is probably right although I though that truckers would yield to passing motorists on the straightaways, esp. uphill. And that a car is just as likely to break down in the left lane.
Actually, this stretch of I-75 is rather new, and that part connecting Ft. Lauderdale and Naples used to be Fla. State Road 84, aka, Alligator Alley. It wasn’t until the late 1980s when I-595 was built to replace 84 that it was decided to make 595 end at the fringe of civilisation (then…), and have the rest of 84 be part of the extended I-75, which was expanded it to make it even less of a joke of an “interestate highway” than it is now.
Anyway, I’ll never understand I-370 in Gaithersburg, MD. An honest-to-goodness mile and a half-long stretch of highway connecting a shopping mall and a Metro station.
Thanks, stuyguy, for the history of the PT.
Montfort, according to what I’ve heard and this site, I-370 (Sam Eig) is an attempt to build a much larger segment of the ICC. This would probably be the same one that Glendening shot down.
When I moved from Ohio to Virginia back in June, I had to drive our 22’ moving truck on the Pa. Turnpike in exactly the situation described in the OP, to the left against those barriers. In fact, it’s posted that trucks must stay to the left in that section.
After all these years of dealing with the 'Pike when travelling to my dad’s in MD, I vowed that that was the last time I would ever drive that monstrosity. From this point on, all travel to Ohio will be accomplished by air.
Actually Shiva, there is a set of tunnels west of Breezewood. They’re between Bedford and Somerset.
I’d figured that 370 was part of the ICC, but all the plans I’d heard for the ICC (including the “study underway” signs I see dotted around the county) implied that the ICC would’ve been further south of 370, paralleling, roughly, Randolph Road.
That site you posted is very interesting, if rather biased. I’d love to see an I-666 around here, though.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Montfort *
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Well that short highway keeps you from having a million other stops along I-270, plus it makes it quicker to get to/from 355 of which a lot of people use. glad that’s not ME though.
As for the OT I thought that they where doing construction in that area. I was there a few months ago and remember the same place. it might also be to keep the truckers from falling off the edge if they go too far right going east.