BART strike 0, Sonoma County commuters 1

We asked Road Warrior readers to keep their eyes open for any traffic snarls due to the BART strike this week. Unless you are commuting to the East Bay, things look good, and one reader even reported an improvement. Here’s what they had to say, and the report of one man who sailed his boat to work:

This morning, my Golden Gate Transit bus from Petaluma got here a few minutes earlier than usual! I also didn’t mind the shortened line at Starbucks! Am hoping that the commute home in unaffected as well. — Venessa

I drove to SFO from Santa Rosa this morning at 7 am and came back  at 9am. Traffic was pretty light going both ways. — Sam

The BART strike has no impact on me at all. The lack of public transportation in the north bay makes a strike a non-issue. — Joe

This morning I commuted from Sebastopol to Newark starting at 5 a.m.  I was expecting to encounter heavier then normal traffic at the 580W/80E merge in Albany, however there was a bad accident further up 80 that blocked much of the traffic I would have merged with. I did notice much longer than typical lines of cars on 580E and 880N trying to get to the Bay Bridge, (fortunately I was traveling the other direction). In total my drive took about 10 minutes longer than usual, mostly due to an accident on 880S in Hayward. — Kevin Kelleher

SFist reports that Wayne Phillips got tired of waiting in line for the ferry and decided to take matters into his own hands. He sailed his a 30-foot Bayliner named Lovin’ Life from Oakland into San Francisco. Read the blog post HERE.

Don’t forget about oncoming traffic

With the recent passage of laws to give a bicyclist 3 feet of clear space… I agree with this and believe in sharing the road. The problem is driving the back roads. Many persons just do not care about the remaining laws. They’ll move across the double yellow (even on blind turns) to pass a bicyclist without any regard for traffic that is coming the opposite way that has the right of way. It just seems that people need a reminder there are other persons on the road… While I like that they want to give the bicycle room, I detest the dangerous position that puts others in. — Bill

Traffic lights: As outdated as our roads?

It must be a nightmare managing all the traffic lights in Santa Rosa, in addition to all the other traffic issues. A difficult and thankless job, I imagine. Just casually observing in over 40 years of driving cars, motorcycles and commercial trucks, traffic signals, in general, seem to behave in the same manner they did 40 years ago, while modern traffic behaves in a much different manner than 40 years ago. Cars themselves are worlds different than 40 years ago.

My question is, will automated traffic signals be brought into the 21st century, within the remainder of the 21st century, or should my next car purchase be a ’65 Plymouth Valiant with a slant 6? — Jeff