Here are some comments from Road Warrior readers:

Misleading bus schedule

I’m wondering if there are other people out there who have been misled by the online trip planning schedules from the Santa Rosa City Transit website.  I am a single mother of 4 who works evenings.  I have 2 teenagers that I have attempted to use the online trip planning with and they have ended up stranded because the bus never came.  Tonight, for example, I dropped my 16 year old son off at a job interview with instructions on taking the bus home, before heading to work myself.  The first half of his trip was on the Sonoma County bus which worked out great.  He gets to the Santa Rosa mall transit at about 6:15 pm and, per the Santa Rosa City Transit website, he should have been able to take the #7 bus at 7 pm to our home around Mission and Hwy 12.  I specifically asked him to wait for the bus, and not walk home in the dark.  By 7:45 pm the bus had not come, so I told him to go ahead and make the hour long walk home….in the dark.  This is not the first time I have attempted to use the online trip planner and have received inaccurate information.  With the limited resources I have, I am trying to teach my children to be self sufficient and resourceful.  Am I wrong for feeling that I should be able to trust the bus schedule times posted online?

Heidi

Watch those turn lights and turn your headlights on

I witnessed today someone who turned on a red arrow light from the lefthand turn lane from Petaluma Hill Road onto Yolanda.  We both happened to stop at the same business, so I nicely pointed out he had just run a red light.  He thought it was a “yield” intersection.  This is a reminder to drivers that there are several different kinds of turn lane lights.  A red arrow is like a STOP sign:  it is not a suggestion.  It means STOP and stay STOPPED till the light turns a green arrow.  Other intersections are signed that say a turn is OK “yield on green (circle).”  I am sure there are safety reasons why some intersections are one kind and some another.  It is still not legal or safe to make your left turn on a red arrow!  I am just glad there was not a cyclist commuter coming along at that moment because he was certainly looking for a clear spot between cars to turn.

Also, any rainy day everyone should have their headlights on!  Sure, you might be able to see, but others can’t see your vehicle.  Many vehicles are light-gray/silver/silver-gold, other light colors or black and they are impossible to see in rainy or foggy conditions.  Your headlights also turn on your tail-lights, equally important in these conditions.  Your automatic daytime running lights do not turn on your tail-lights.  If you don’t know how to manually turn on your headlights, find out before the next time you turn on your ignition, for everyone’s safety. Thank you.

SER

Thoughts about getting around in Santa Rosa

I don’t know much about the political drama that had Caltrans planning to put 12 through Spring Lake, er, Santa Rosa Creek Reservoir. It was no big deal in the planning stages since that was just a man-made floodwater storage pond, I guess part of the system with the tunnels under downtown. But I hear some homeowners in the path were not so willing to move.  I understand it ended up on the ballot too, but why wasn’t it extended at least to Summerfield?  Farmer’s Lane at rush hour is usually at or beyond capacity, seems it would be more “green” to reduce the number of idling cars and trucks and start/stop traffic (more fuel usage, bigger “carbon footprint”) than to use the Caltrans right-of-way for a path.

A guy who used to work for the city was telling me about the underpass at Stony Point being built — that a decimal point was misplaced and pilings ended up being a few feet off or something.  An interesting project where the bridge was built first, and then the dirt underneath dug out.  He said the Fulton underpass was supposed to be identical but didn’t know how it got to not being built way back then, or why there are Caltrans temporary-type offices there.

I don’t know about the misplaced decimal point, but I do know 12 from Fulton to Stony Point is one of the nicest, flattest, straightest sections of road in the county. It could be a runway.  It would be nice if whoever built this part was still building roads around here. The quality just isn’t the same. Why don’t we have more roads like this?  Was this a test section or something?  Would’ve been cool to be driving alongside trains on the Joe Rodota trail, pre-85, before my driving time.

As an occasional tow truck driver, I noticed something on 12 one day while in the middle: The center divider is offset; more shoulder on the westbound side than the eastbound side.  Was there a plan to add another lane at one point, or at least reserve the capacity for one?

Going through the “Trejo” (another story everyone should know, great man vs. scum) interchange, most of the spots where it transitions from road to bridge have asphalt patches at the unions. Some of these are in really bad shape.  I’m really used to the eastbound left lane over 101 where it’s been a little drop-off for years.  Not sure why the maintenance on these weak spots is so infrequent.

I’ve been to several roll-over recoveries where I’m specifically told, “the NB 101 connector ramp to WB 12, but stay on NB 101 and pull to the shoulder just north of the ramp.”  This is a common spot for people to misjudge. They go over the edge and down a steep drop-off.  It seems some sort of guardrail would help prevent a fair number of vehicles from leaving the roadway here. There are guardrails at other spots in this interchange that seem far less hazardous, so how did this curve get overlooked?

Rex, Santa Rosa

Frustrating red lights

I read the letters to you regarding people running red lights. It’s no wonder they do this. Every light seems to have motion sensors which changes the light to red every time a car pulls up to the light. We’re talking within 15 seconds so there is no time for the light to collect a few cars before it goes red. This creates lights going from green to red like a carousel bottling up traffic into big groups of cars. I have to admit that at times I find myself so frustrated if it’s still yellow I’ll go through even though I could possibly stop. It’s bad enough that Santa Rosa has no east to west corridor. Traveling from Calistoga Rd. to N. Dutton took 20 minutes and 15 stop lights. Another problem I’ve observed is drivers have no regard for the speed limit I’m not talking speeding I’m talking about going 10 miles under the speed limit. People then dodge from lane to lane to try and get around them. I have at numerous times thought I was speeding and was actually going the speed limit. I’m not even going to bring up the condition of our roads. It’s a travesty that we are paying city employees their pensions and benefits before we fix our roads. I think it’s high time that our city officials start doing their jobs instead of protecting them.

Doug

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