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Re: Observations From Road Trip



Corey Alambar <corwyn> wrote:

>(d)  Connectivity of the Bay Area to SoCal - This is a major issue.  if one is
>travelling north from the Bay Area to Portland, Seattle, etc., there are
>several corridors out, including I-580 and I-80 to I-305 (I think?).

I think the number of corridors from the Bay Area to I-5 north and I-5 
south is about the same. No big deal for me.

Drivers starting in the Bay Area who intend to use I-5 for destinations 
north of Sacramento should pass through Fairfield/Suisun on I-80 for 
maximum convenience, and there are several ways to get there depending on 
where in the Bay Area the trip starts. The only exceptions I can think of 
would be such trips starting east of Livermore along I-580, which should 
probably go on I-580 to I-205 to I-5, through Tracy and Stockton.

>There is
>nothing at all like this for traffic headed south.

Ooh! The rhetoric of passion! I think the existing southbound routes work 
well enough.

>If you are in the North
>Bay, you could go I-580 to I-205 through Tracy (I think).

Actually, that's an excellent route for more than just the North Bay. The 
highway number remains I-580 all the way to I-5, and it works well for 
trips to southern California starting in SF, the North Bay, the East Bay,  
Contra Costa and most of the Peninsula.

>But there is no
>highway access for the South Bay to get to SoCal and vice versa.
[snipped out comments about inadeqacy of 152 and distance from the South 
Bay to the 580 route]

More enthusiasm without appreciation for the fact. C'mon, 152 is only a 
few minutes of non-freeway driving, and it still saves time compared to 
US-101. Of course a freeway from Ca

And there's still US-101, which is at least two lanes each direction from 
SF all the way to LA, though it does take over an hour longer to drive 
than any I-5 route because of longer mileage and stricter enforcement of 
speed limits. The weather along it is less hot than I-5 in the 
summertime, something a driver must consider if the car has no air 
conditioning and daytime travel is necessary. It is also *much* less 
foggy than I-5 in the wintertime, something any driver who doesn't have 
navigational radar should consider. The Grapevine gets closed during 
several winter storms every year because of snow, whereas US-101's 
closures last winter near Ventura due to flooding and landslides were 
rarities. The scenery on US-101 is less boring too.

Given California's population and topography, I think we have excellent 
road connections between most *regions* of the state, except maybe into 
and out of the north and central coast counties.

Steve Blackwelder
<sblackwelder@firstbyte.davd.com>



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