Let’s see how we’re doing on our main aim — surviving the road dangers of our twin valleys.
Since my initial Wheeldude column, where two potentially dangerous spots were highlighted, nothing has changed.
Approaching Highway 17 at night from La Madrona Drive leaves one literally in the dark — there are no signs visible at night directing a driver to the north- or southbound on-ramps.
Also, bushes at the Granite Creek Road on-ramp to Highway 17 still block visibility, making entering freeway traffic a play of luck — you accelerates rapidly at the short on-ramp, and if Lane 2 is empty, you’re in. If there’s traffic and the other drivers are willing to switch to Lane 1, you’re in.
But if drivers in Lane 2 can’t or don’t want to switch, the merging driver has to brake quickly, risk being rear-ended, then face reacceleration to merge, with no on-ramp remaining.
So if any Scotts Valley official would like to comment on these two situations, I’m sure we’d all appreciate it.
Road hazards
We have received two complaints regarding San Lorenzo Valley hazards, and I have another of my own, in Scotts Valley.
First one is from Margaret Gniewosz of Felton:
“Each morning while I drive my children to SLV Elementary School, I am in fear for the safety of my family. Last summer, someone came up with a brilliant idea to lay two speed bumps on the school’s driveway.
“The problem is that during morning hours, making the left turn into school is already a risky proposition. The first bump is too close to Highway 9. When the drivers have to literally jump over the highway to enter school, almost immediately they have to slow down considerably to pass the bump. If the maneuver is not done swiftly enough, the driver risks being hit by an oncoming car traveling Highway 9 from Ben Lomond.
“While the car passing the bump slows down to almost a rolling stop, another car directly behind it is forced to do the same, which magnifies the danger of being crashed into.
“I am not sure who is responsible for this construction. From driving my kids to this school over 12 years, it seems to me that there is no need for even one bump on this driveway.”
The second complaint is sort of a reversal of the first one — it’s about a dip, not a bump, at the south entrance by the Union Bank branch at Felton Fair off Graham Hill Road. It has a sinking storm drain that causes cars’ undercarriages to hit the dip when entering at anything more than a crawl.
It’s the same problem when making a turn from Scotts Valley Drive into Johnston Way — but it’s a double whammy. First comes the moderate dip, but it immediately goes into a substantial bump, and it’ll knock the heck out of your dentures and oil pan if you take it at anything more than 5 mph.
All these cases are no problem at 3 a.m., when you can turn off the engine, get out of the car and leisurely push it to your left-turn destination. But waiting for a quarter-mile gap and punching through 5 p.m. traffic can be a daunting task.
A wheelman’s peeves
These are surely shared by many — first is the hands-free phone law. Citing studies in the United Kingdom:
Drivers who use a mobile phone, whether handheld or hands-free:
- Are much less aware of what’s happening on the road around them.
- Fail to see road signs.
- Fail to maintain proper lane position and steady speed.
- Are more likely to tailgate the vehicle in front.
- React more slowly and take longer to brake.
- Are more likely to enter unsafe gaps in traffic.
- Feel more stressed and frustrated.
We all have heard about people who can’t chew gum and walk at the same time — although at the other end of the human spectrum, multitasking is second nature to emergency dispatchers, cab drivers (who talk on the radio, the telephone and to drunken passengers while looking for an address), fighter pilots and probably a majority of us, if cultivated.
So there should be a way out of reducing everybody to a lowest common denominator — some kind of multitasking ability test that could be administered. Then special plates could be issued to those capable of safe multitasking. There should be a charge for it (like there is for personalized plates) as a way for the state to make some money.
My other peeve is commuter lanes, also known as High Occupancy Vehicle lanes. A report by California State University, East Bay, states that “HOV actuation imposes a 20 percent capacity penalty” on traffic in the Bay Area.
I think the idea is still worthy, but only on freeways that have at least four lanes of traffic. In a three-lane configuration, like Highways 85 or 87 over the hill, the left lane is HOV, and 93 percent of the traffic goes in the remaining two lanes. But the No. 3 lane is for vehicles entering or exiting the freeway, leaving just one lane — not enough — for continuous driving.
Lucjan Szewczyk, the Press-Banner’s photographer, is a part-time cab driver who commutes to Scotts Valley from San Jose.
