Butterfly Wings and Traffic Jams

[kevin_standlee]

It has only been a few days since I moved into my new office in San Mateo, and I don't really know what the traffic along the section new to me (US-101/Ralston Avenue to CA-92 to West Hillsdale Avenue) was like before, but I get the feeling that a traffic change far away is causing minor havoc near me.

Last week, Caltrans reconfigured some lanes (link is to a page that will almost certainly change in the relatively near future) at the west end of the Bay Bridge. That's about 25 miles from my office. Since that change, traffic on the Bay Bridge has been much worse than usual. That's led to a lot of people balking at the backup from the Bay Bridge and heading down to the San Mateo Bridge instead. That in turn is clogging up traffic coming up US-101 toward its junction with CA-92 (Route 92 is what passes over the San Mateo Bridge), which is slowing down my commute, as I need to get from North US-101 to West CA-92 for the last three miles or so up to my office, while the balked Bay Bridge commuters are moving from West CA-92 to North US-101, through a junction that was only barely holding its own at the best of times.

This is yet another reason I need to look for some place closer to my office to live.

Comments

[kproche.livejournal.com]

Can you cut west in to El Camino Real and get to your office efficiently that way? (alas, the kickass Alma Rd disappears in Menlo Park. It's one of those handly little "express" ways that can be really useful sometimes).

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

That doesn't work well because my new office is up on the hill -- the Hillsdale Blvd exit off CA-92, not the one off US-101. Another alternative, which I'm likely to keep trying if the 101/92 clog continues, is to exit at Hillsdale from US-101 and follow Hillsdale all the way up to the other end. Even though that takes me through a slow-speed residential section along the way, it still looks faster than waiting out the current clog.

If the 101/92 jam extends as far back as Ralston, I can exit there as well and take Ralston to Old County Rd to Hillsdale (rather than El Camino Real; fewer traffic lights and stop signs). I'm sure I'll figure out over time when it's a better deal to bail out to surface streets over waiting out the freeway.