I have travelled the country to a decent degree. I used to own a large motor home. I spent about 25 years living in the Denver Suburban areas. I traveled a lot into Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Utah...
Speed limits in the aforementioned areas were higher than speed limits in New England. Wyoming would have 70 and CT was still 55. I think it is even higher now like 75 or maybe even 80. Why do I bring this up?
In my travels there would as always be some road construction. In those areas a highway could be getting resurfaced for miles and they would divert traffic to one lane on the opposing directions highway. When they did that it was with simple orange cones. Speed limits were still 70mph. So you are driving down these highways doing 70mph with oncoming traffic an orange cone away coming at you doing 70mph. I remember driving trucks with trailers or motorhome with car in tow and thinking nothing of the situation. Here in the Northeast when they do road construction they haul in all those concrete barriers.
The point is both states get a new road, it just costs way more in the Northeast than in the west to accomplish the same pavement.
Same thing goes for local work in New England. They often have 2 cops with cars for a simple repair on the side of the road. Other places just have a sign and a flagger supplied by the construction company.
A couple of years or so ago there was a storm in Connecticut that resulted in many power outages. Eversource got into trouble because it was perceived that they didn't do enough to prepare for the storm. So now you get stupid emails when a few rain drops are predicted to fall.
So just like everything else government gets into, once something happens, government establishes draconian rules and laws that never go away and end up costing lots of money.
Why do school busses stop at the train tracks and open their door?