Q: I usually drive on Central Expressway from Palo Alto towards Mountain View, and may’t imagine they haven’t fastened visitors flows into downtown Mountain View but.
I miss the benefit of turning onto Castro Avenue on a whim, with its nice purchasing and eating. As a substitute, I go, intending to show round, then hand over and proceed on my solution to one other south/west valley alternative.
Are there plans to repair this quagmire, and enhance downtown Mountain View entry?
If the objective is to proceed the “no automobiles on Castro” coverage, one resolution is to resolve restrictions at Evelyn and Castro. Only some eating places there can be impacted, together with pedestrians going to or from the Caltrain station. It’s extremely fixable. A extra everlasting resolution is to restrict parking on Castro to twenty to half-hour, reasonably than zero parking and no automobiles.
Extra and higher expressway signage earlier than Shoreline advising about entry to downtown Mountain View can be useful, in any case.
E. H.
A: With the everlasting closure of Castro Avenue on the practice tracks, Mountain View might be including a ramp from Shoreline Boulevard to Evelyn Avenue and connecting Evelyn Avenue by means of Castro Avenue, offering direct entry to the downtown and the Transit Middle from Shoreline Boulevard. Mountain View can also be planning to request extra wayfinding signage on Central Expressway to downtown, through Shoreline Boulevard. They've additionally coordinated with Google, Apple, Waze, and so on., to replace maps to indicate the Castro Avenue closure and alternate routes to downtown.
When the grade separation at Castro Avenue is full, folks and automobiles will now not be required to cross the tracks. This can enhance security for pedestrians and bicyclists, scale back practice gate down-time and horn noise, scale back conflicts between trains, automobiles, pedestrians, and bicyclists, and enhance visitors movement.
Q: After studying one in all your latest columns, I simply had to answer the mess on Freeway 17. For years earlier than I retired, I mentioned this drawback with Caltrans. Freeway 17 is the one freeway between Santa Cruz County and Santa Clara County and should be utilized by hundreds of drivers through the day. At night time, the visitors quantity is tremendously diminished. I attempted many occasions to get them to do their work at night time, apart from emergency restore, they usually refused more often than not as a result of price. My argument is that hundreds of drivers idling of their automobiles can also be pricey when it comes to air pollution, gasoline consumption, and elevated visitors accidents.
Possibly somebody with extra affect than I may get them to do street work at night time.
Gary Lofgren, retired CHP Lt.
A: There’s additionally the issue that chilly climate makes nighttime repairs troublesome on 17.
Search for Gary Richards at Fb.com/mr.roadshow or contact him at mrroadshow@bayareanewsgroup.com.