Tracy Press

Tracy Press columnist Jon Mendelson weighs in on the newest proposal for alleviating valley gridlock.

San Joaquin County’s exurban paradise might get one step closer to imitating Los Angeles, the mother of sprawl, if a plan presented to the Tracy City Council on Tuesday night is taken up.

It might be inappropriate to even say the plan is in its infancy — fetal stage is more like it — but at least it’s there. And we got a glimpse of it when a representative from the San Joaquin Council of Governments presented the proposed study that will help tell planners where traffic meters and carpool lanes would help valley commuters the most.

If all goes as expected, Tracy residents will mimic their Mountain House neighbors in a few years by driving through on-ramp traffic lights to get onto a freeway — one with an extra high-occupancy vehicle lane.

Despite the sound bite that “New strategies may be necessary to manage congestion,” traffic meters and carpool lanes aren’t new ideas. They’re just new to the San Joaquin Valley. Freeways without meters in Los Angeles are the exception, not the rule, because, when used in the right situations, they work. (Although they don’t perform miracles.)

They have been shown to help regulate the flow of traffic and, in some cases, increase freeway speeds in heavily traveled areas by 50 percent or 60 percent.

It might seem that we’re grasping at straws when a traffic meter is the best congestion solution that we can muster — a sign that we’re truly out of ideas. But I’m not sneezing at the idea yet.

I’ll cheer almost anything that has a chance at reducing the headache-inducing, blood-pressure-raising gridlock that’s becoming ever more present in the valley. So if a few extra traffic lights and carpool lanes can do that, sign me up.

To some, building carpool lanes might be a pure pipe dream. Getting fifth and sixth lanes on Interstate 205 was like pulling teeth, even when the need was obvious. But there’s still an obvious need for a carpool-type lane in addition to the expanded I-205.

Even those six new lanes won’t be enough, because we’re playing catch-up in a game that planners and builders might never win.

Let’s be honest. Almost every community in the Central Valley (heck, let’s just say California) could use a complete infrastructure overhaul. Wider roads, integrated public transportation, communities designed with pedestrians and cyclists in mind — the whole shebang.

Of course, this isn’t going to happen. Aside from the fact that there’s not enough money, resources or will to do it, the mega-project would be obsolete by the time it was finished.

Maybe the best we can do is embrace the strategies that work elsewhere and build future communities with an eye toward the future.

Although, if you happen to think that fewer cars on the freeway is the best way to reduce congestion, some haven’t given up on extending high-speed rail through Tracy and over the Altamont Pass. Just the other day, Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, threw his support behind a route that would take the to-be-built California bullet train (which, by the way, could really use a catchy name) through Tank Town and over the Altamont.

Unfortunately, the Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which won’t decide the train’s final path but has the ear of the state’s High-Speed Rail Authority, recommended laying tracks from the valley to San Jose over Pacheco Pass. Which means the Altamont route will likely be bypassed for the less practical (but more political) route that goes too far south to make it of any use to the northern San Joaquin Valley.

So it looks like we might have to say goodbye to hopes for high-speed rail and fire up those on-ramp stop-and-go lights. With powerful Silicon Valley politicos playing keep-away with public transportation, the lights might be the best short-term option we’ve got.

• Vistit Jon's blog for more Second Thoughts. Or, contact him at 830-4231 or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

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written by Jerry , November 09, 2007

Exactly. It always occurs that when there is gridlock, we all complain, the government spends years hemming and hawing over funding issues, environmental impact reports and all the other stuff that has to be done. Meanwhile, traffic continues to worsen, and then when something gets done, it's often too little too late.

I still believe that after all this gets done (whenever it gets done), 205 and the interchange with 580 is always going to be a mess. I've gotten to the point where I continually ask my co-workers that live out here if they've discovered any lesser-used back roads that will save some time here and there. Because the fact remains that we'll all be retired by the time BART gets to Livermore, ACE runs more trains and the freeways get to the point where they're free-running.

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written by LD , November 09, 2007

They should have started putting BART in instead of the truck by-pass lanes on 580... Probably would have gotten done around the same time and would have taken a lot of vehicles off the road. Especially if it stopped near The Lab (8000 people right there). There is no easy way to get to Livermore or even Pleasanton. The back roads are congested. It now takes me 45-60 minutes just to get from west side of Tracy to Livermore (around 18 miles). That's on a good day without accidents.

Let the lawmakers make the commute for around 90 days and see how they like it. Maybe they wouldn't hem haw around so much and wait until it was to late to give the needed monies.

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written by Brendan , November 10, 2007

I would love for BART to come through Tracy! However, the unfortunate fact is that with the current technology, a conventional BART train doesn't have the capacity to harness the electricity required to go through the Altamont pass. For the train to reach the top of the 1000 ft elevation, not to mention carrying hundreds of passengers per train, is impossible for BART at this point. My brother works for BART and has told me all this. The only way for BART to get to Tracy is to tunnel its way through the Altamont, which would run into the billions of dollars. Plus building a tunnel roughly 10 miles long isn't a cake walk. A conventional train, like the ACE train would be the only feasible way to go. Add more trains and hopefully that will ease some of the traffic cogestion!

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written by Steve Reshakis , November 10, 2007

Jon Mendelson just doesn't get it....He says they are out of ideas...no they just skipped over the first idea twenty five years ago, leftists in California have resisted adding lanes for that long. what wrong with playing "catch-up"?
if we need them...we need them. also the Rail idea is fantastic, even if it is Pacheco Pass, thats because when the grade is cut for the train, it will also setup the road
bed for the future Freeway through there also saving Millions ( or billions) since it is California. When Pombo was working on the pacheco pass highway they estimated ten thousand cars a day ( thats alot of relief for the Altamont.) so Mendelson is again wrong about the train not helping the north San Joaquin valley.
Jon, Stick to reporting about something in your age group, like Brittany Spears.