A proposed bill could change how your driving apps get you out of traffic.
It could be good news for small towns feeling the burden of detours, but bad news if you’re stuck in a jam.
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Those GPS apps will often suggest or change routes when there’s a crash or congestion ahead, which Keandre Blue says he loves.
“I’m getting right off the highway as soon as I can,” the Plainville driver said. “Find the first exit and cutting up every back road I can.”
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But those back road routes offered by apps can send a lot of cars down residential roads that can’t always handle large amounts of traffic.
So, HB 5071 would prevent GPS systems from proposing alternate routes that detour heavy traffic onto local roads.
In New Haven, roads just off of Interstate 91, like Orange and State streets, are often filled when there is a major highway event.
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Blue told us there’s similar congestion events along I-84 fairly often.
“It’s always starts the same. Exit 44 in Prospect and then all the way up to like Main Street in Hartford, going over the bridge. Horrible,” Blue said. “Luckily, I know that area well but when I’m over here, I definitely have to figure out where I’m trying to get off the highway.”
The bill was introduced by Rep. Mitch Bolinsky, of Newtown. It was referred to the Joint Committee on Transportation on Jan. 9.
There is still a lot that has to happen before the proposed legislation becomes law. If it does, Blue said he might have to go back to paper maps and studying different routes the old way.
