Lately the San Mateo Bridge, which of course I use to get to work, seems to be a magnet for idiots, fools, morons, imbeciles, and just plain old fucktards. I’ve been cut off so suddenly that I had to brake and swerve to avoid a collision. I’ve seen a guy cut perpendicularly across several lanes in front of the toll booths. And just today I saw a guy whose load of large PVC pipes hadn’t been secured properly and were all over the fucking road. Thanks for making my commute more interesting, assholes.
I had to take the SM bridge when the Bay Bridge was closed recently, and though I didn’t have any problems, I was again reminded about how the bottleneck design is indeed a perpetual disaster waiting to happen.
that bay bridge shit last week REALLY RUINED MY WHOLE LIFE
Eh, the Bay Bridge nonsense was a bit of a pain in the ass, but I consoled myself by playing D&D and board games all weekend.
At least it is three lanes with a shoulder now. When I had to commute on it, every stall meant a 4 mile back-up.
Besides, it was designed with the idea that a bridge from 238 to 380 (or thereabouts) would be built shortly afterwards. That last got brought up in the mid-90’s.
nerd!
I don’t drive on the San Mateo Bridge myself, but every time there is an accident on it, it turns 101 and 92 into parking lots (for example, last Friday), eventually dumping an ocean of cars onto local roads, turning the whole San Mateo/Belmont area (where I live) into a giant traffic snarl. Random people crawling on lane-and-half (“But the locals park on the street anyway!”) roads through the hills, blindly searching for the mysterious Northwest Passage to 280 and making my trying to get home and get groceries a royal PITA.
So, pit on, man!
(The same idiots are on the Dumbarton, btw. The bridges just call to them. It’s time to give up)
I laughed at this. I used to think Hillsdale or some other such road was a shortcut myself, until I finally realized that El Camino is the magic road. (Up to Hillside if I wanted to annoy the locals, or Trousdale if I didn’t. ) I had a partial excuse - I was scoping out better bike routes. I didn’t have any reason to go that way too often, though.
Eventually I learned the simple rule of the San Mateo Bridge: Don’t ever take it. Unless you’re more than three miles south of the City and heading toward San Francisco. That’s the only time it’s acceptable.
Dumbarton has always seemed a lot saner, probably because it’s much shorter, and has been three lanes ever since the new one opened.
There’s also a simple rule about 101 : Don’t ever take it for more than 5 miles. You will always be able to get there with less frustration on an alternate route. Until life imitates the Matrix and it has 6 lanes one-way[sup]*[/sup], it’ll probably be slower too.
*Of course, there is a six-lane freeway just a few miles away. It’s really nice, too. And for longer distances, you’re probably going to save time on it. Just don’t go searching in Obsidian’s neighborhood.
Life is the Matrix. 
I live in So-Cal and the 101 is just as much of a beast down here. There are certain times of day when it’s reasonably clear, but some sections you should just avoid, period. It’s like the book 1984, where Room 101 contains your greatest fear. Damn straight!
What’s worse is any sort of directions you run through google or yahoo want you to take 101. Internet directions seem to hate 280. So if you’re not from the area and on internet directions, you’re on 101. (My favorite was when I first moved to CA following yahoo directions from my apartment in the Belmont Hills down Ralston, all the way up 101 up Van Ness and down Geary clear across the city to my a doctor’s appointment-- that I was horribly late for-- south of the Presidio. The nice receptionist pointed me towards 19th)
If you’re not from the area, also, you generally have no idea that the street layout up in the hills was apparently laid out by Louis Carroll. I have gotten lost within 1/2 mile of my own house.
Hells yeah!
I live in Dublin and work in Redwood City. The Bay Bridge and Dumbarton are way the hell out of the way, and public transportation is not remotely an acceptable option.
sturmhauke - I was being sort of facetious; obviously there are plenty of people in a similar situation, or there wouldn’t be so much traffic.
But I hope you’re aware of how far south Redwood City is. Going over Dumbarton is only 1/3 of a mile farther (using Google Maps’s definition of the city centers), so it’s not out of the way distance-wise.
It’s up to you to determine whether going south on 880 & over is worse than what you’ve got now.
But 101 is the Matrix! Marsh is my ex’s exit, in fact. source page
After the MN bridge collapse, the NYC Triboro Bridge and Tunnel Authority imposed new weight restrictions. Bulk material dump trailers (carrying sand, aggregate, stone) are prohibited from hauling on the TBTA’s crossings.
On its face, it sounds like a sensible regulation:
Dump Trailers with a gross weight of 108,000#
-With a vehicle weight of 38,000#
-Hauling 70,000# of material
Get replaced with:
Tri-Axle Dump Trucks with a gross weight of 80,000#
-With a vehicle weight of 36,000#
-Hauling 44,000# of material
Less wear and tear on the bridge platforms, safer for everyone! Wrong. The supply and demand on both sides of those bridges remained constant - and there is no regulation on the number of vehicles that can cross the bridge at any given time.
So now, when a customer needs 350,000# of sand, instead of dispatching 5 trailers of material across the bridge (a 540,000# impact on the crossing) - He’s required to order 8 tri-axles of material (weighing 640,000#). He’s there’s an additional 100,000# of stress placed on the crossing, more diesel fumes, added traffic and an additional 20% in the cost of freight.
I work on the north side of Redwood city, only a couple exits south of the San Mateo Bridge. 880 always sucks; I actually don’t even drive on it at all. I get off before the 238 connector and take Foothill to Jackson to get on the bridge. I thought about taking 680 south and driving across Fremont to get to the Dumbarton, but I’d be driving across practically the entire width of the city to do it.
Yeah, Friday was nuts. I ended up just staying at work a couple hours longer to avoid it.
I live in Fremont, and you don’t want to got through it in the morning for this. When I used the Dumbarton, it was fairly good, and got better when FastTrak came in - and even better now that they’ve extended the lane.
880 south has gone to hell since summer is over. I think until this blows over, I’m taking back roads to Mission, which is a lot better with the new entrance ramp.
As for the OP, I feel for you. I seldom take either the San Mateo or Bay Bridges. When I go to Marin county I take Richmond San Rafael.
Yeah, no shit. I had to deliver for Webvan in that area. FReakin’ nuts. The planning software was fine for the flats, but get into the hills, driving a panel truck, was not real fun. There was even an old road over the hill that had a gate locked across it for years, with bushes convering the gate. Of course, no one knew this until a colleague was sent over the hill.
http://cbs5.com/local/local_story_261103836.html
Three trucks piled up in the middle of the bridge, spilling concrete and lye everywhere and causing a shutdown of all westbound lanes just in time for morning rush hour. Whee! :mad:
And they’re still doing those designs!
Here in Minneapolis, where the I-35W bridge collapsed last month, they are planning on replacing it with a 10-lane bridge. That goes down to 6 lanes on the freeway at the river banks. So there will be a constant bottleneck at both exits from the bridge.
(And, no, that freeway can’t be expanded. There are buildings & houses too close, and several bridges over the freeway are too narrow to allow adding lanes. Well, I suppose it could be expanded, if you were willing to spend enough money. You could buy up all the nearby houses & businesses, tear down all the bridges and build wider ones to replace them, etc. – it would take years to fight the neighborhood opposition, but with enough money you could do it. But the Federal money isn’t enough even to replace the bridge that went down.)