Park and Ride Lot Coming to South Deerfield

I was wondering what the traffic jam was when I got off Interstate 91 north at exit 24 in Deerfield. Lots of drilling and earthmoving. Then yesterday I approached two men in yellow Mass DOT vests and they told me what they were building there at the corner of Rte 116 and Rtes 5&10. It’s a Park and Ride lot.

Right next to the big Erving gas station, a road is being built that will continue after 116 ends, to sweep back down curving over to the new parking lot. There will be parking for 50 cars and there will be a bus
station there.  I asked them which buses will park there. I mean, it’s way out on the highway and not exactly a walk up kind of bus stop, like the ones in the center of South Deerfield village.  They shook their heads, they had no idea.

You might have also seen the park and ride lot built in Sunderland, just a few miles away. It’s an effort by the DOT to get more people carpooling, to leave a car there and drive together up or down Rte 91. It will also make Rice Oil, the owners of the Dunkin Donuts Erving gas station there happy too, because the road will sweep right down to the park and ride lot, and who can resist a jelly donut for your shared car ride to ‘Hamp?