Here are some comments from Road Warrior readers:
Downtown on/offramps dangerous
As a downtown Santa Rosa resident, I use all of the downtown exits and onramps often. It seems that these are among the most dangerous and congestion causing exits/entrances of the newly redone Hwy 101 downtown corridor. The Hwy 12 merge to northbound 101 is often backed up coming from both east and west and requires great skill to navigate depending on where you’re coming from and where you’re headed (multiple lanes, multiple decisions to be made) but at least there’s a bit of room to maneuver. I’m interested in crash stats in this sorta complex merging area.
Although it seems the above could have been better designed, what really gets me every day is the short distance given to us to get into (or out of) the combined exits/entrances on the crazy-short College Avenue/downtown ramps, especially when compared to the crazy-long Steele Lane ramps. The short ramps create unnecessary backups at commute times and appear to be very dangerous to maneuver as well.
I think the whole downtown merge and exit plan was very poorly done, causes bad jams and seems very dangerous.
Jake of Santa Rosa
Todd Road onramp too short
I suppose it might be too late to ask Caltrans to redesign the Todd Road onramp to southbound 101. Large trucks and often several cars come on there at the same time with little room to spare and end up right in the midst of busy traffic. Savvy commuters try to remember to get into the next lane before that onramp but sometimes there is lots of traffic, so the unfortunate ones who forget or can’t get over in time have to slow down or stop to let trucks and cars in.
It has been this way for a long time. I was hoping that the construction work would address this but it did not.
Evelyn
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Steve Klausner
Caltraians made the same arguments about on and off ramps in downtown SR when they were planning the expansion. They wanted to close a couple of them, but the city objected. The intersections of Hwy 101 at Hwys 12 and Steel Lane will get a lot worest after the proposed high density housing is built.
October 20th, 2012 10:12 am
Joseph
If the Third Street on and off ramps were metered as they were designed to be, then the problems would be far smaller in scale. It is absurd not to have a rolling rollout now that the majority of the freeway work is completed, and we should not have to wait for the completion of the Novato narrows to be completed in order for the metering lights to be turned on now. Once turned on, they would stay on and whatever effect they have on surface streets can be dealt with in a timely and reasonable fashion before the onslaught of cars once the Novato Narrows project is completed. Santa Rosa is planning to close Redwood Highway through downtown, which is going to push thousands of cars onto the freeway, better to have the metering lights up and working before that absurd move as well.
October 20th, 2012 10:32 am
Skeeter
It’s a combination of these merges, and the fact that most commuters tailgate. If folks would use the 3 second rule, there is more room to merge smoothly.
October 20th, 2012 10:40 am
Mike
The Todd Road on-ramp issue is legit. I am often one of those groups of cars suddenly appearing on that short on-ramp. The main problem is that there’s a traffic light right before the on-ramp so when the light turns green there isn’t time for the merging traffic to spread out – you drive forward 50 feet, make a 90-degree turn to the right, and floor it! That ramp is way too short. Compounding the issue is the presence of several businesses on Todd that involve heavy trucks, and a rig freshly loaded with gravel just isn’t going to be able to get up to speed on the ramp, not their fault. The ramp needs to be much longer.
October 20th, 2012 10:48 am
Kathy Rumundy
I have recently been transferred to work now in North Santa Rosa vs. going to our Petaluma office…residing in Rohnert Park. I’m wondering what causes this very lengthy back up on the Hearn Avenue South exit coming home around 6PM? The exiting cars extend out into the first lane of the freeway most days? What causes so many people to have to take only that exit? Is it school or? It couldn’t possibly be that many people living in one area! I really can’t see much over that direction,like a store,or college,etc. Many cars make that last minute decision to merge into that one lane exit, and the other three lanes panic and slow way down?
October 20th, 2012 11:26 am
Barb
I wonder every time I take that Steele Ln. exit “what the heck were they thinking?” You are in the two exit lanes, the light turns green and you’re suppose to merge under the overpass to the two right hand lanes. If you stay in the turning lanes, they put you right back on the freeway Southbound?
October 20th, 2012 11:34 am
Linda
The merge from hwy 12 to 101 north is very very dangerous for the reasons mentioned above and also because of the divider between the on ramp and 101. It is only a small curb and I have wondered since my first time on that on ramp if someone would pull onto the freeway prematurely.
I take the side roads to avoid this merge. You’re coming from 12. you have to look left to see if anyone is coming from there, you have to look right to see if anyone is coming from there, you have to move over a lane to get onto the freeway and watch out for cars moving both left and right to get on the freeway or off at the off next off ramp. It’s crazy!!!
It is a bad accident waiting to happen and where were the safety officers when it was designed this way?
October 20th, 2012 11:53 am
Kyle
People do not think ahead about lane usage and where they are trying to go in the first place. This mixed with not using a blinker makes people into idiots in my opinion. I always know what lane I need to be in from the start of my trip and never wait to change lanes. I think people would not have such an issue if they only PAID ATTENTION!!!! The only exit that pisses me off is the north bound downtown Santa Rosa exit. This is because if you are in the very left lane, you may turn left or go straight but if your in the right lane you may only go straight. I cant count how many time I have had people in a non-left turn lane try to turn into me and go west on wilson st.
If anyone reading this has ever made a left turn from that lane, you are clearly an idiot and should have 5 year olds drive you because everything is clearly marked…IF YOU ARE PAYING ATTENTION!!!!!
October 20th, 2012 3:24 pm
Rex Faktor
To Kathy…
The Hearn and Baker overpasses are woefully inadequate, and this causes the backups southbound, in conjunction with the missing Bellevue interchange. This problem gets worse as we approach December due to Costco and Target…the last couple weeks of the year are dreadful for driving in this area.
Costco is the largest generator of sales tax dollars in Santa Rosa, if not the county. Why we didn’t make them contribute more towards traffic improvements and still don’t is a mystery to me…
October 20th, 2012 6:54 pm
Doug
A few of the Petaluma onramps are pretty dangerous too. The onramps for Northbound 101 at East Washington and Old Redwood Highway have no room to get up to speed before being dumped onto the highway (they have the big looping turns, but no straightaway once you get out of the turn). By the time drivers on 101 notice there is someone trying to merge onto the highway, they’ve already run out of room.
I was hoping Caltrans would have addressed the problem when they widened the highway, but they didn’t change it at all.
October 22nd, 2012 10:43 am