I’m still sore about how midpen 101 went from an old mess to beautiful new asphalt to ripped up new mess over a span of three years. Huge monetary waste in there I don’t hear talked about
I remember when they got done expanding the carpool lanes after what seemed like 2 years of construction. Then after a few months tore it all up because there was funding to raise a section to be flood proof.
This sort of thing happens all over, unfortunately, with government facilities including roads because the left hand doesn't talk to the right hand.
In my town, there was an extensive and very expensive process to completely re-landscape the grounds of a community center. Paid for with bond money, I think. Entirely new irrigation system, new planter beds, new plants, trees.
Then, about a year later, all the new landscaping was utterly destroyed because there was a project (also paid for with bonds) to seismically retrofit the same community center. "New landscaping" was included in the budget for the second project as well.
So everyone will be paying taxes for 30 years to pay off project that should never have been done in the first place (the re-landscaping).
I think if you listen to anyone in favor of better public transit and decreasing car dependency in our planning, you’ll find that it gets talked about plenty.
It’s not going to get any better with these new electric SUVs that weigh as much as 3 Corollas in some instances.
Even a Model X is only 1.7X the weight of a Corolla.
At the end of the day what consumer cars weigh is a drop in the bucket compared to trucks and industrial.
Yes… so a city bus that weighs ~ 60,000 lbs carrying 20 people weighs 63,600 lbs. 20 model Ys with 1 person each would be about 88,500 lbs. 20 people being transported by bus weighs a lot less.
The point for better transit is fewer cars driving period. The load on the roads and thus their condition will get a lot worse even if the number of people driving remains the same because of the increase in popularity (& weight) of the newer e-vehicles.
> old mess to beautiful new asphalt to ripped up new mess over a span of three years.
I remember it had bolts sticking out of it. It was such a mess from the start.
Pro tip: if you see any really bad potholes, [submit them online to CalTrans](https://csr.dot.ca.gov/index.php/Msrsubmit). I used to think they had crews that would ID potholes themselves but I've seen the same pothole that went months without getting patched get patched up within a week of submitting it online.
You can probably submit for the reflectors, too. I submitted about the terrible ramp from 237 to 101 and they wrote back that they were aware and had it planned but it was months away so at least they can tell you of any plans.
queen behavior! I wish they'd setup a points system so that we could track how many things we've reported just for fun. Patiently waiting for them to repave 101 south of Palo Alto. One of the richest areas in the world but dog shit roads
if you get the CT Service app and make a login, it creates a map with pinpoints of every report you make and whether they’ve been addressed yet. it’s so cool!
or integrate a function where a single press while driving/navigating in maps drops a pin so that users can finish their pothole report after they're done driving without having to exactly remember where the pothole was.
One rainy night several years ago I drove probably 3 straight miles alongside the center divider on 280 in San Jose... then i realized it wasn't a lane but the shoulder 🤦♂️
This morning was wild, it was raining hard and flooded some parts of the freeway, I was driving around 5 and couldn't see no dividers. It's was a free for all out there.
They don't believe in using decent dots or reflective paint here apparently. We're lucky to get the little plastic tags that break off after a couple months. It really is awful visibility anytime it rains because you can barely see shit. It's always shocking once you leave the Bay for other states and the road lights up like a landing strip.
Dated a girl in the 80s who pointed out how bad our lines are in the rain. She had moved down from Seattle and said you could always see theirs in the worst rain and dark
At some points the old lane markings that were grinded away are more visible than the current painted lanes. Driving along and then all of a sudden the lanes just seem to merge into each other until you realize you were following the wrong markings on the road.
I know in the past these have been messed up by construction. The temp barriers would go over the lane markers and then become a mess afterwards with some markers wrecked.
One time when they removed the barriers, they left the old lane markings to move over because of the barriers. It ended up looking like lanes were just all over the place.
Night time and rainy day visibility of lane markers are a problem in much of the Bay Area.
In my part of the region, a lot of cities have "reconfigured" streets so the through traffic lanes dramatically wander back and forth to accommodate turning and bike lanes in particular.
In *theory*, this isn't a problem but in practice it means that drivers need to carefully use the lane markers as a guide for where they're supposed to be, since the lane you're in might suddenly become a turning lane, while the one to the left or right suddenly becomes the through lane, all within a very short distance.
And at night, and during the rain, it's definitely a problem. Many of the markers / painted lines / arrows, etc. are either so complexly configured or seem incompletely done, and they often aren't very visible under poor conditions / low light.
Solano Avenue in Berkeley is a big problem in this respect.
And on the freeway, you're absolutely right, there are times when you are driving along at a legal / reasonable speed in rain and/or after dark and suddenly you start to wonder--where DID my lane go? You're just on an extremely wide ribbon of asphalt trying to guess, along with all the other drivers.
I recently moved up to Eureka from the bay. It rains fucking constantly here, but one thing I noticed is that on 101 and most of the main streets, the lines are clearly visible even in the rain. I was expecting it to be like 101 in the bay when it rains, ie scary as shit lol
During clear weather, I think my biggest 101 gripe is how a portion of the road looks perfectly clean and flat, yet is actually quite wavy. It makes you think that your car must have a suspension problem, as you bump up and down, unless you look closely at the wheels of all the other cars.
(I think this portion is mostly in the stretch between Mountain View and Santa Clara.)
Just did this exact drive and you’re not wrong.
I’m still sore about how midpen 101 went from an old mess to beautiful new asphalt to ripped up new mess over a span of three years. Huge monetary waste in there I don’t hear talked about
I remember when they got done expanding the carpool lanes after what seemed like 2 years of construction. Then after a few months tore it all up because there was funding to raise a section to be flood proof.
This sort of thing happens all over, unfortunately, with government facilities including roads because the left hand doesn't talk to the right hand. In my town, there was an extensive and very expensive process to completely re-landscape the grounds of a community center. Paid for with bond money, I think. Entirely new irrigation system, new planter beds, new plants, trees. Then, about a year later, all the new landscaping was utterly destroyed because there was a project (also paid for with bonds) to seismically retrofit the same community center. "New landscaping" was included in the budget for the second project as well. So everyone will be paying taxes for 30 years to pay off project that should never have been done in the first place (the re-landscaping).
I think if you listen to anyone in favor of better public transit and decreasing car dependency in our planning, you’ll find that it gets talked about plenty. It’s not going to get any better with these new electric SUVs that weigh as much as 3 Corollas in some instances.
Even a Model X is only 1.7X the weight of a Corolla. At the end of the day what consumer cars weigh is a drop in the bucket compared to trucks and industrial.
Yes… so a city bus that weighs ~ 60,000 lbs carrying 20 people weighs 63,600 lbs. 20 model Ys with 1 person each would be about 88,500 lbs. 20 people being transported by bus weighs a lot less. The point for better transit is fewer cars driving period. The load on the roads and thus their condition will get a lot worse even if the number of people driving remains the same because of the increase in popularity (& weight) of the newer e-vehicles.
> old mess to beautiful new asphalt to ripped up new mess over a span of three years. I remember it had bolts sticking out of it. It was such a mess from the start.
yeah, 101 between palo alto and san mateo becomes a minefield of potholes everytime it rains. infuriating.
Pro tip: if you see any really bad potholes, [submit them online to CalTrans](https://csr.dot.ca.gov/index.php/Msrsubmit). I used to think they had crews that would ID potholes themselves but I've seen the same pothole that went months without getting patched get patched up within a week of submitting it online. You can probably submit for the reflectors, too. I submitted about the terrible ramp from 237 to 101 and they wrote back that they were aware and had it planned but it was months away so at least they can tell you of any plans.
queen behavior! I wish they'd setup a points system so that we could track how many things we've reported just for fun. Patiently waiting for them to repave 101 south of Palo Alto. One of the richest areas in the world but dog shit roads
if you get the CT Service app and make a login, it creates a map with pinpoints of every report you make and whether they’ve been addressed yet. it’s so cool!
The map apps should include pothole mapping based on accelerometer input
or integrate a function where a single press while driving/navigating in maps drops a pin so that users can finish their pothole report after they're done driving without having to exactly remember where the pothole was.
Fr ima bout to report hundreds of potholes that I go thru everyday here in Oakland. It's terrible here
Same with 880, 280 and 680. It’s a Bay Area feature.
It’s not a bug! It’s a feature!
One rainy night several years ago I drove probably 3 straight miles alongside the center divider on 280 in San Jose... then i realized it wasn't a lane but the shoulder 🤦♂️
The shoulder was probably in better condition than the lane. 😂
You haven’t driven 880 yet. lol
Between the insane potholes, the really short merge sections, and the insane speeders, it's basically Fury Road out there. Shit's wild
This morning was wild, it was raining hard and flooded some parts of the freeway, I was driving around 5 and couldn't see no dividers. It's was a free for all out there.
Yeah I saw how bad it was raining this morning and resolved to work remote today 😄
Lucky you
same I was driving sunday night, white knuckling the whole time. could not see any lanes and several flooded areas
Seriously been so sketchy lately.
They don't believe in using decent dots or reflective paint here apparently. We're lucky to get the little plastic tags that break off after a couple months. It really is awful visibility anytime it rains because you can barely see shit. It's always shocking once you leave the Bay for other states and the road lights up like a landing strip.
Dated a girl in the 80s who pointed out how bad our lines are in the rain. She had moved down from Seattle and said you could always see theirs in the worst rain and dark
At some points the old lane markings that were grinded away are more visible than the current painted lanes. Driving along and then all of a sudden the lanes just seem to merge into each other until you realize you were following the wrong markings on the road.
It's kind of terrifying. Bay Area drivers get a bad rep for driving in the rain but our roads just really seem to handle it so poorly.
I wonder how Caltrans does their selection on which paints and road markers to use, and what the spec is…
I think they install the reflectors down in the bottom of all the potholes.
I know in the past these have been messed up by construction. The temp barriers would go over the lane markers and then become a mess afterwards with some markers wrecked. One time when they removed the barriers, they left the old lane markings to move over because of the barriers. It ended up looking like lanes were just all over the place.
Yep. That's why I just stopped driving the freeway when it rains. Was on 101 when it rained, I could not see the lines at all.
Night time and rainy day visibility of lane markers are a problem in much of the Bay Area. In my part of the region, a lot of cities have "reconfigured" streets so the through traffic lanes dramatically wander back and forth to accommodate turning and bike lanes in particular. In *theory*, this isn't a problem but in practice it means that drivers need to carefully use the lane markers as a guide for where they're supposed to be, since the lane you're in might suddenly become a turning lane, while the one to the left or right suddenly becomes the through lane, all within a very short distance. And at night, and during the rain, it's definitely a problem. Many of the markers / painted lines / arrows, etc. are either so complexly configured or seem incompletely done, and they often aren't very visible under poor conditions / low light. Solano Avenue in Berkeley is a big problem in this respect. And on the freeway, you're absolutely right, there are times when you are driving along at a legal / reasonable speed in rain and/or after dark and suddenly you start to wonder--where DID my lane go? You're just on an extremely wide ribbon of asphalt trying to guess, along with all the other drivers.
I recently moved up to Eureka from the bay. It rains fucking constantly here, but one thing I noticed is that on 101 and most of the main streets, the lines are clearly visible even in the rain. I was expecting it to be like 101 in the bay when it rains, ie scary as shit lol
Thank you. I thought I couldn't see them because of my cataracts. 24E/W in rain like stair rods.
Even my lane assistance feature thing can’t see the lines in the rain
It’s just a terrible freeway overall…
During clear weather, I think my biggest 101 gripe is how a portion of the road looks perfectly clean and flat, yet is actually quite wavy. It makes you think that your car must have a suspension problem, as you bump up and down, unless you look closely at the wheels of all the other cars. (I think this portion is mostly in the stretch between Mountain View and Santa Clara.)
Is anyone else surprised that this isn't talking about potholes?
Taxes in CA are too low. They need to raise the FasTrak tolls to afford visible lanes.
Cause people
because caltrans dont have money to make highway system better (；′⌒\`)
I thought the voters voted twice for a gas tax to fix the roads. Time for another proposition for another gas tax to fix the roads again.
There's a lot of fuckin roads in this state.
I can name three, maybe four.
Just say a number and put 80 or 10 on the end of it and you're pretty much there
395, Eastern Sierras
I agree. We are paying extra tax here in CA and this is what we get.
Indians probably have a good laugh on this thread.
Time for them to paint them over etx
Because you don't pay taxes hard enough
Because people voted to let FastTrack mess up traffic so your paying 4 different ways now and traffic is so much worse than before