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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>
References: