Anonymous
December 28, 2019, 3:09 am
159.9k Views
27 Comments
By an edhat reader
What was with the horrible traffic on the highways and backroads on Friday evening? Is the horrible traffic on almost all of the back roads through SB to Summerland due to apps like Waze directing traffic onto alternate routes? It’s nuts how even my secret short cuts are parking lots!
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I heard that parts of I-5 were closed due to… maybe ice? Not sure, but all the cars that would have traveled that way were re-routed to 101.
The traffic routing sure seemed inefficient and counterproductive, and showed to me some really severe limitations on the direction giving capabilities of the apps as well as the drivers that were blindly following them. I don’t understand how it could have been any faster or save any time to get off the 101 and then try to drive across Santa Barbara, up the hills into Montecito, and then laterally over to Summerland before getting back onto the 101 again. There is a very steep and narrow road that is barely two lanes running up the hill near my house. It has no lights and is bordered on one side by a steep canyon drop off with no guard rail in most places. On the other side, there is a steep hill going up. So there is no shoulder, no way to turn around or pull over once you’re on it, and very low visibility. And cars were backed up on that road for over half a mile. Just to get up the hill and end up at an intersection and stop sign, where they were waiting a long, long time to even have a chance of merging onto another street. The road is barely adequate and not particularly safe for local travel during the day, and it’s one of the only ways in or out of the area if there’s an emergency (whether medical, fire, flood, mudslide or something else). I couldn’t believe people were being directed up that road because it generally isn’t all that safe and would have made it impossible for any type of responder to arrive or residents to leave. Not to mention the traffic was moving less than one two miles per hour, so it would have taken people 45 minutes or more to move less than a horizontal mile on a detour that didn’t get them any closer to a destination. Made clear to me that these apps should be viewed a bit skeptically and need a lot of improvement because they certainly do not take into account things like road conditions or travel suitability. It was pretty idiotic.
I always say, if you are in traffic you are part of the problem.
The 101 was backed up from carp to paso because the 166 was closed too. Maybe it’s time to consider widening the 101 to atleast 3 lanes on the central coast. This would be good for daily commuters safety, escaping town during catastrophes and other major highway closures far away and would alleviate a lot of the cars using the alternate city streets and causing more back ups.
This is why me and mine don’t travel during any holiday. So stupid to get caught in stop and go traffic. It’s always highly amusing to see the travelers stuck in traffic or shown on TV sleeping at the airport. I guess with overpopulation people better learn how to pack t.p., food and water and other essentials for those “fun” holiday people jams. You go for it. We’ll stay home and enjoy our time off.
Tell that to the workers that had to drive in that don’t get the holidays off or drive for a living.
Ha. Widen the 101? Don’t hold your breath. Sorry.
Well it’s inevitable, just not in my lifetime.
BODYBOARDER. And what percentage of the traffic is made up by those who weren’t on holiday, I wonder?
Check the sign, make that infinite “constuction” – a big CalTrans ooops in this infinite Carpinteria cone zone. (PS- good one!)
Traditional holidays are environmental hazards – dislocates too many people at the exact same time. Holidays additionally are no longer culturally appropriate in our diverse and un-chuched nation. . Ban them. Problem solved.
COASTWATCH: There are downvotes, but I upvoted because you are oh-so right. When gasoline prices drop, it’s amazing how traffic suddenly gets much much worse.
Yeah. Build more freeways. Who cares if wildlife habitat is destroyed. Cars are king. Cars rule.
101 IS the detour around the grapevine…
I am going to assume you don’t have a job and can stay home for days on end. I own a business and part of my business is visiting clients at their locations. I can’t just shut down, desert my clients and send all of my employees home because it snowed on the I-5. So maybe you shouldn’t always say that. Some of us have to work for a living and have a valid reason to be on the road.
Construct a detour around the grapevine section; build another North South Freeway and rail system. Route 99 was completed in 1965. Interstate 5 finished in 1979 in Stockton. We pay huge gas/ fuel taxes to support fat pensions and big government. Demand better roads for the highest assessed state income taxes , fuel, and other taxes and fees paid.
Carpinteria is Spanish for “infinite construction”.
If I-5 is closed because drivers don’t slow, ticket each and every one of them at the bottom of the grapevine: click them. Use the ticket revenue to augment taxes to construct a permanent detour around The 5 at the grapevine .
how is this confusing, people are traveling for the holidays……
I’m sure ticket revenue can’t even cover trash pick up on a highway – much less building an new road.
They take into account the travel times of others using the apps at that current time. If uses are moving faster on city streets than those on the highway – they say take city streets.
CHEAP GAS , every yahoo is on the road…
Why blame the app? It’s not the apps’ fault that diverted traffic detoured onto roadways ill prepared to deal with the overflow. They are just code written for normal circumstances not a “god’s eye view” to what happened and how to get around as a consequence. I mean do you ask Siri or Alexa to solve all your challenges in real time? Do you expect them to?
The only solution was for at least half the folks on the road to get off the road and let the remaining half get to their destinations and thus clear the road so the first half can complete their journey. That way some are inconvenienced and some aren’t. The only app you’d need is the random number generator that decides who’s in the first group or the second.
Wrong. Highway 101 was never intended to be a detour around the grapevine section of I-5 a major transportation artery which connects 3 countries: Canada, US and Mexico.
Oh come on Shasta Guy, you forgot to mention the meth heads, lots and lots of meth heads. And with guns! Nothing is more peaceful than hundreds of meth heads with AR15’s driving their trucks and ATV’s through the forest… Amiright?
Because I’ve spent a lot of time in the State of Jefferson. Those woods are full of deadbeats high on meth who love their guns, their whiteness, their lack of education and strangely, their lack of front teeth. But yes, the area is astoundingly beautiful and I do love Northern California. Just not the hoards of trashy locals who believe it to be theirs by birthright…