The one that COULD HAVE topped that one, but for the fact that it caused
such
an uproar that it never got past the talking stage and the Cal trans people
backpeddled REAL FAST... They wanted to put one of those metering lights
across
westbound I-8 somewhere east of Lake Jennings Road. For those of you not
familiar, this is a stretch of Interstate in a pretty rural area of eastern
San Diego County. The commute speeds on that stretch of freeway in the
morning
are in the 75-85mph range (posted 70). The good folks at Caltrans wanted to
stop
everyone out in the boonies and "meter" the flow of traffic into town so as
to supposedly ease congestion farther down the road. No apparent thought
given
to the prospect of trying to stop an 18 wheeler from freeway speed out in
the
middle of nowhere. There are apparently some people at Caltrans with too
much
time on their hands. I feel "liberated" every time I cross the border into
Arizona!! Maybe when I retire.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-autox@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-autox@autox.team.net]On
Behalf Of Bill Sanford
Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2000 7:01 PM
To: autox
Subject: Sad Highway merging(long)
Hey all,
I was trying to catch up on these posts and have to add the height of
"gummit" stupidity in our local berg of San Diego.
Several years ago a large freeway to freeway merge was completed. (the
2 freeways had been there for several years, but going eastbound on I-8
you could not use the "freeway" to go southbound on SR-94.) Both large
freeways did not connect that direction and you had to use surface
streets
to connect.
Well they finally installed a very large, very tall , fairly
wide connector ramp to merge the 2 55+ MPH freeways. Worked great for
about a month or 2.
Then one day driving home from work, I see them mounting stoplights
over the ramp, on the downhill side, barely visible from the full speed
exit/merge ramp. Sure enough they were active within a few weeks.
So, here you come blazing over this ramp, a nice uphill arc to the
right, suspended way up in the sky, and as the other freeway comes into
view, a ramp merge signal light stops you cold. Kinda like road racing
and entering an accident in a partially blind corner WITHOUT the benifit
of flaggers!
Within a week I noted a Cal-Trans worker vehicle parked just past
the light taking notes. I stopped to point out the stupidity of a stop-
light on a blind freeway ramp, notice signs or not, locals might get
used to it, but tourists don't expect full stops on freeway merge ramps!
She agreed and was actually taking notes of near incidents. She gave
me a number to a "higher up" and asked me to PLEASE call and voice my
displeasure. It was supposed to cut down on the 1/2 mile turn off line
at the next exit.
Only 2 weeks later, when a car parked at the signal was rear-ended by
a
vehicle traveling at highway speed and at least one fatality resulted,
were the lights shut off and removed.
At least they understood their mistake then.
Bill Sanford
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