The Conezone is over in Carpinteria
By Blazer
The end of Cone Watch 2022 has arrived in Carpinteria. A shiny new carpool lane running in both directions on Hwy 101 from Bailard to Santa Claus Lane has been installed. Drivers have 3 lanes to do as they please outside of rush hours, morning and afternoon commuters will need at least two people in the car in order to drive in the diamond lane. Penalty for non compliance is $401.
Members of the CalTrans team along with every size and shape of politician from Ventura to Buellton were on hand to cut the ribbon commemorating the occasion. This slow moving inconvenience that has been part of our lives for a decade will continue until the three lanes in either direction are completed from Montecito to the North border of Carpinteria.
Congressman Salud Carbajal, First District Supervisor Das Williams, State Senator Monique Limon, Carpinteria Mayor Wade Nomura and Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse plus a host of others were on hand.
Still needed to complete the project that would widen the freeway through Montecito is a cool $200 million. All elected officials attending were confident that we can find that money from infrastructure funds and promised to do their best to keep the project on time and on budget.
No mention of the irony of closing an onramp Northbound in Carpinteria to announce the opening of a lane on the freeway. Happy commuting people.
8 Comments
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Jun 18, 2022 12:49 PMBlocking the on ramp for a photo of something they had no part in.
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Jun 18, 2022 08:01 PMWhat a joke, total utopian Lefty dream. Increase capacity by 50% on the freeway add a third lane and give it to a class of people that will barely fill the lane so everybody else who has paid for that lane misses out on the benefit. Lousy idea. Why spend the tens of millions of dollars to add a third lane and not let everybody use it? Darn politicians have their heads in dark places. Money would be better spent to negotiate better terms with the freight lines and actually have commuter trains at uconvenient hours of the day so people can ride a train instead of being sardine packed into the freeway. What an f'n joke.
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Jun 19, 2022 10:14 AMCommuter trains make good sense; the rest is counterproductive in terms of decreasing vehicle usage.
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Jun 22, 2022 04:40 PMYETI - what? How do you turn a new carpool lane into some liberal agenda? How on earth is this political? You're starting to sound like someone else on here... haha!
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Jun 18, 2022 08:28 PMAww c'mon Yeti - just put your inflatable sex doll in the passenger seat and no one will know the difference and then you can use the carpool lane.
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Jun 19, 2022 09:18 AMYeti, A short read of the carpool lane sign shows that for 18hrs of every day anyone can drive in the lane . It's only restricted from 6-9am & 3-6pm. Try getting hold of some good weed & mellow out.
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Jun 19, 2022 11:55 AMI wonder if commuters will do the "Old mannequin in the passenger front seat trick" in the carpool lane. It was been done many times before in other cities. Now I just wonder some years from now will commuters do that with their AI's (Artificial Intelligence), and if it will illegal. But AI's will look and pass for humanoid. Ah . . . "The Future!"
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Jun 22, 2022 03:39 PMThe last several times I've traveled on the 101 South from Carp I've taken note of the carpool lane. I'd estimate that a good third of the vehicles do not have a passenger. It's nearly impossible to enforce car pool lane use in heavy traffic and people know it. The article doesn't mention that the 101 remains constricted to two lanes between Carp and Ventura for the next 18 months anyway due to the repaving project. And as we all know the 101 west of Carp is still two lanes each way and will be for many more years at the least. So, now we can merrily carpool back and forth between Santa Monica Road and La Conchita.