Uncategorized | Getting There

Monday, November 22 – So Where Were You on November 11?

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Commuter Gal

Monday morning, Thanksgiving week and there’s a break in the storms. They sky is a dramatic landscape of layers of soft gray clouds interspersed with pink and lavender from the sunrise. We’re getting a blast of cold Canadian air and the warm Honda SUV I’m in feels mighty nice. Traffic starts out holiday-week-light, but jams up near Richmond and we stop and go all the way to the Bridge. The driver is a friendly jean-clad lady with a purple dagger-shaped tatoo on the back of her right hand. The fellow in the back seat has some sort of gps or tracking device that shows what’s going on with the traffic – if there’s an accident, where the heavy and light traffic is, and he keeps us informed as we go along.

I ask them both if they were caught in the massive gridlock on November 11, the day the morning commute stopped on the bridge. Craig Carlos-Valentino stopped his car on the Oakland-Bay Bridge that morning, brandished a gun, and claimed to have a bomb. When authorities arrived and persuaded him to surrender he threw the gun over the bridge railing into the water. The out of control driver believed his wife was having an affair. Several of the lanes opened shortly after 8 a.m., but traffic stayed backed up throughout the morning.

Neither of my commute companions was stuck in the mess; the driver was waiting in the carpool line when another rider heard about the problem on her cell phone and told the rest of the carpool line. She offered to drive people to the Richmond Bart station, and a small group joined her. “We made it into the city with no problem.” The gps guy in the back seat missed a ride connection on the bus from Vallejo (lucky for him) and waited for the ferry, which got him into the city on time.

“There were people walking all over the bridge”, our driver said. “Yeah”, the gps man said, “guys were peeing over the side of the bridge. They were stuck in that traffic for 3 hours! You know, all that morning coffee.” That was one image I didn’t see captured on the news at 10.

“I talked to a carpool rider who left her ride and walked to Treasure Island to find a bathroom”, the driver said. “She didn’t find a bathroom and when she came back, traffic was moving and she had no ride. So she was stuck on Treasure Island”.

As for myself, it was Veteran’s Day, one of the few days off I enjoy at my job, and I was sound asleep enjoying my day off while it was all going on.

Were you on the bridge that day? We’d like to hear about it.

Filed under: Car Pooling, Car Pooling Etiquette, Casual Carpool Bay Area, Casual Carpooling, commute, casual car pool, Today's Commute, Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

November 18 and 19 The Rain Begins and there’s more Toll Talk

Posted on November 20, 2010 by Commuter Gal

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18 is a shivery windy day with the sun poking through lots of clouds. Rain predicted for Friday and the week ahead. Cars are lined up and waiting. I pass on the first car – the hip hop blaring from behind the closed windows is practically shaking the car. No thanks. My ride is the next one in line – a Lincoln MKZ. A luxury suv with all the trimmings, and the driver declines the toll. Hey, speaking of tolls, have you heard the one about the Toll Plan for Downtown San Francisco?

This is a congestion pricing plan that would levy a $3 toll for travel in a downtown zone 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays. There would be a cap at two trips or $6 a day for travel in and out of the central area as well as within it. Bridge toll payers would get $1 off the congestion toll. People living within the toll zone, low income people and disabled drivers would pay 50% of the toll; taxis, buses and emergency vehicles would not pay at all.

I know, I groan too at the thought of yet more tolls, but have you tried to drive a vehicle in downtown San Francisco during those hours? When I drive and pick up carpoolers, it takes me nearly an hour to get from Union Square to the carpool line on Beale Street. The traffic is practically gridlocked. Something has to be done.
And tolls may help discourage people from bringing their cars into the city; HOWEVER, some sort of alternative needs to be offered – shuttles, better bus and BART connections, and so forth. According to TOLLROADNEWS (Google, and see for yourself), this sort of toll plan has worked in London, Rome and Stockholm. If it happens in San Francisco, it would be the first such plan in North America.

Some years ago when I visited London, I took the subway everywhere and it truly goes everywhere. Connections are easily made with buses and it was easy walking distance to get to where I wanted to go once I emerged from the subway. It’s not quite like that here. BART is good, but limited; MUNI is getting better, but there are long waits between buses on many of the lines. And keep in mind there are people who simply have no alternative way to get to work other than driving their car.

But it doesn’t look like this plan is going into effect any time soon. The project is now in its 4th year of studies and public consultation and there’s a long way to go. Still, it’s encouraging to know someone is thinking about ways to fix this traffic/commute mess. Thank you to Paul Minett at Trip Convergence, Ltd in New Zealand for passing this information on to me. He is a true sustainable transportation hero!

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19
Cars are lined up waiting for riders. I join 2 guys in a big Chevrolet van. And away we go into a gray misty and chilly morning. The driver is dressed very Friday light, from his 2 layers of t-shirts and loose gangsta style jeans to his reclining position in the driver’s seat. He’s almost laying down. Once underway he strikes up a conversation with the fellow next to him in the front seat. The driver is on disability leave from MUNI, and is on his way to group therapy today. Sounds like he had something like a nervous breakdown from too much MUNI. “I stopped seeing the passengers as people after 9 years,and just saw them as numbers. I couldn’t do it anymore.” Ahem, and this guy is driving my carpool today. Okay, well so far so good. He continues talking about his life, his frustrations as a single parent of 3 kids under 10 years of age (also one 25-year old back east who just made him a 49-year-old grandfather of twins). He was raised in the Bayview section of San Francisco, as was the front seat passenger, and they fist bump when they realize they had classmates, teachers, and various adventures in common. They’ve both moved out of the city for survival reasons. “Too many kids gettin’ shot. I didn’t want that to happen to my kids. I’ve got full custody of them now.”

Intense. The view out the window as we round the corner onto the bridge is a welcome relief. About 30 wild geese are resting in the shallow water, rinsing their feathers and gearing up for more flight. Magnificent.

Filed under: Car Pooling, Car Pooling Etiquette, Casual Carpool Bay Area, Casual Carpooling, commute, casual car pool, Environment, Public Transportation, San Francisco Commuters, Today's Commute, Tolls for car pools, Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

Tuesday, November 16 Changes in the Air

Posted on November 17, 2010 by Commuter Gal

Today’s ride is in a VW sedan – a two-door. It’s a squeeze to get into the back seat but once I’m in it’s quite roomy. The couple in front seem to be together, both 30-somethings. The guy is driving – he’s a big fellow, probably 300 pounds. The lady is petite. It’s a golden morning, that special California sunlight that only we have. Traffic is awful. The carpool lane is great and is moving, but on heavy days like this many single drivers break the rules, taking a chance on a big ticket, and cut into our lane. So we all wind up slowing down. The warm weather is vanishing, but what a treat these few days have been. Autumn and Winter are about to move in along with Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Each day when I exit the carpool at Fremont and Howard streets, I walk up Fremont to Market Street, where I catch my bus, the #2 Clement. (I have yet to try catching a bus at the new temporary bus terminal.) I’m sure many of you carpoolers walk the same way past the rapidly vanishing old Transbay Terminal. It’s been quite a dramatic demolition over the last couple of weeks. The overcrossing on Fremont street is completely gone, drastically changing the light on that street. Demolition is scheduled to take a total of 8 months, with 4 phases. We are now approaching Phase 3, which will include walls and windows and sidewalks. The crews have been working 24/7, scheduling the noisiest work for nights and weekends.

I walked slowly past the crumbling cement and naked iron supports of the old bulding this morning, recalling an article written by Callie Millner (SF Gate, August 16, 2010 – “Transbay Terminal thrown Under the Bus”). She expressed her surprise that there wasn’t a greater effort made to save the old building, or at least more noise made about it. She took one of the final tours through the place (sorry I missed that) and talks about the old diner and bar: “I was particularly taken with the old diner, which has a teal-and-butter color palette and a long teardrop of a counter. On the far right side of the diner, a shelf of plants were still green, and it wasn’t hard to imagine a former, bustling life for the place – complete with plastic-backed menus and uniformed waitresses slipping pies out of the old-fashioned refrigerated shelves above the sink.”

The architect for the old terminal, Timothy Pflueger. also designed the Castro and Paramount Theatres, 450 Sutter, and the SF Stock Exchange. Callie notes, “it’s loaded with historical features, many of which have been covered or shuttered for years: banks of phone booths, a long and lovely newsstand, an old state police office with a jail cell.” When I turn around at the corner of Market and Fremont and look back at the building, I can still feel the energy of the old place, and am glad to know that some of its artifacts are being preserved in historical museums and in other train and bus terminals.

Filed under: Car Pooling, Car Pooling Etiquette, Casual Carpool Bay Area, Casual Carpooling, commute, casual car pool, Environment, Public Transportation, San Francisco Commuters, San Francisco History, Today's Commute, Transbay Terminal, Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

Monday, November 15 A hot time!

Posted on November 16, 2010 by Commuter Gal

It’s 70 degrees at 7 a.m. and it’s 6 weeks until Christmas! A beautiful balmy weekend just ended and today will be more of the same. Ahh. I’m riding in a Nissan Versa, very comfy and roomy. A glass mason jar is sitting in one of the cupholders – for the toll money. The driver is a tall, 50s guy, sort of Germanic looking. But then I just watched “Valkyrie” last night so those Germanic images are fresh in my mind. (The Tom Cruise film about the 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler). The air conditioner is on so the car is quite chilly, in spite of the relatively warm morning. The disheveled blond woman riding in the front (also Germanic looking) plugs into a set of major ear phones. the big ones that cover your whole ear. I’ve ridden with her before and remember my take on her then – sort of angry and mussed. Traffic is bad. This looks like it will be a full hour-and-then-some commute today. But it’s so clear and lovely, and I’m not driving. As we near Berkeley the view of the city and the bay is just like a postcard – the city, the bridge, the blue water and the sparkling clear sky.

Flying directly above us, same direction, over the freeway, are 7 magnificent ducks journeying on their migration. It’s always a happy sight to see this continuing ritual. The freeway may roar beneath them, their habitats may shrink or vanish, the climate may be warmer or colder, but the migrators prevail, as they have and as they will. It’s a big hit of optimism and hope, and I thank them. Happy Monday.

Filed under: Car Pooling, Car Pooling Etiquette, Casual Carpool Bay Area, Casual Carpooling, commute, casual car pool, Environment, Today's Commute, Tolls for car pools, Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2 – The Days After

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Commuter Gal

The Giants won last night and it’s a gorgeous autumn morning. Unfortunately, I have to drive in today, so no sitting back enjoying the scenery for me on today’s commute. My friend is the passenger in the front seat, and a lovely lady named Barbara rides in back. Traffic’s a bit frantic, but we move along and are in the city in less than an hour. Along the way we pass 2 CHPs on motorcycles, and further down the road a couple more in their cars, watching for cheaters in the carpool lane. Although a few single drivers ducked in and out along the commute, no one ‘cheated’ long enough to get caught. That dramatic looking low-lying fog hovers in the meadows near the water and makes this beautiful morning even more so.

In case you haven’t seen some of the recent toll update information . . . . .

Fewer drivers are making the trip across the Bay Bridge during the busiest commute hours (5 – 10 a.m. and 3 – 7 p.m.) They are either crossing at a different time period or taking BART. There are also fewer drivers in general crossing the bridge – a gradual reduction since 2003 when tolls began to increase and employment decreased for many commuters in the bay area. But with the increase in tolls, the reduced traffic hasn’t hurt the pocketbook of the Bay Area Toll Authority – they’ll be using $30 million of that new toll money we’ve been shelling out since July 1 to re-build the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza’s headquarters. When they announced the tolls and how they’d use the money, they never mentioned a new headquarters office building. There was a lot of talk about ‘seismic retrofitting’ of the bridge, plus freeway repair and maintenance. Goes to show.

Filed under: Car Pooling, Car Pooling Etiquette, Casual Carpool Bay Area, Casual Carpooling, commute, casual car pool, Public Transportation, San Francisco Commuters, Today's Commute, Tolls for car pools, Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

Monday, November 1 – How about those Giants!

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Commuter Gal

Many cars waiting and I am in the front seat of a Toyota SUV. A fat carved wooden buddha sits on the dash, accompanied by an ornament card with a drawing of a similar fat buddha on a string, hanging from the mirror. The driver is a 30s something Chinese-American woman in office-casual attire. She’s wearing brown tweedy suit slacks and a tailored blouse; her jacket lays on the wide armrest between the seats. An empty styrofoam coffee cup and a bottle of Arrowhead water rest in the drink wells. The three of us comment on the lovely weather and how lucky it was last night for the Halloween trick-or-treaters to go around on a relatively warm, dry evening.

KNBR radio tells us we’ll have another beautiful day and the World Series gets closer to what may well be a Giant’s victory.

We pass ground-hugging fog in the low spots near Hercules. It’s filmy and beautiful. Farther along as we approach the Bay Bridge we see the City (well, actually we DON’T see the City) completely wrapped in fog. Migrating ducks fly overhead near Emeryville. 3 small very still shore birds with thin stick-legs stand in the shallow pool that we see as we round the corner onto the bridge.

The driver says she’s looking forward to moving to Millbrae next year, closer to work. She is tired of this commute, having done it for several years. I have begun to drive more frequently and I agree it is exhausting and stressful. Traffic is heavy and not moving at the toll gates. They’ll be sitting there for awhile. We speed past and onto the bridge to greet a spectacular view. The sun has come up behind us hitting the thick fog in the bay that circles Angel Island and Tiburon, sparkling off the occasional windows that peek through the mist. It’s a Golden California morning.

Filed under: Car Pooling, Car Pooling Etiquette, Casual Carpool Bay Area, Casual Carpooling, commute, casual car pool, Today's Commute, Tolls for car pools, Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

Friday, October 29

Posted on October 29, 2010 by Commuter Gal

The last commute day of the month (for most of us) and what a great ride for me!

A very gray overcast morning which felt more like the middle of the night than the morning – it was dark! The line of cars waiting for riders was wrapped around the block, so no waiting. I hopped into a commercial pick up truck (an electrical contractor), paid my toll and off we went. We chatted about the usual things – the weather, the traffic and in the pockets of silence I enjoyed the driver’s choice of music – classical. He was a very ordinary, electrical-contractor looking type kind of guy, in his late 40s or early 50s. Sort of a long crew-cut, workingman’s attire. He said he prefers classical music and is “tired of all the political advertising” on the commercial radio stations.

That got us into a political chat about the candidates (we don’t like Meg or Carly), the marijuana initiative (he’s not sure about it) and the general state of affairs (politicians are too busy being politicians and not tending to our business). As we drove through the relatively light Friday morning traffic, the sky lightened a bit and nearing Albany I saw a lone white egret, legs tucked straight out behind, flying above the freeway. Another mile down the freeway and a dozen wild ducks journeyd on their migratory way.

Near Berkeley there’s always a grand view of the city and the Golden Gate Bridge, and the driver said he’d had the most amazing Golden Gate Bridge experience. “I got to climb up to the top of one of the towers”! I asked him how he managed that, and it was through a friend who’s an electrician with the bridge. He described the tiny elevator they rode in, and the walkway around the tower. He said it was a perfect, clear day and he got a great photo of Baker’s Beach and the City. A rare experience.

As we came over the Bay Bridge with the Ferry Building just below, he said he’d never been in the Ferry Building, although he is a native San Franciscan. I encouraged him (and all of you, too) to pay it a visit. Besides being of historical interest, it’s a delicious adventure in Acme Bread, Cowgirl Creamery and their dozens of delicious cheeses, plus great gelato, olive oil, a fish market with the freshest fish, books, gadgets, restaurants, all terrific. I frequently take the ferry home in the evenings and if I’m not dashing to make the ferry, stop and buy a loaf of bread or some fresh croissants from Acme. “I think I’ll take a ferry ride over one weekend and check it out”, he said.

We said our good-byes at Fremont Street to the background of a rousing piece by Bach on the radio. As I got out, walking up to my bus I had the feeling once again that the casual carpool can be a special very human experience, and is much more than bickering over the tolls. Happy Halloween to all. Our November commutes begin on Monday.

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Tuesday, October 12 – Now Where Was I?

Posted on October 12, 2010 by Commuter Gal

September came and went and my blogging sort of went with it. Crazy workload at my job overwhelmed me. But casual carpooling continued and so did my observations. Here’s a synopsis of the last few weeks.

SEPTEMBER 13 – 17
It’s quite chilly today, overcast and not a hint of sun. Monday morning ride with such a pleasant looking guy. A nice “good morning”. A great new and comfy Honda Prius. But once we hit the freeway it all went very bad. Tailgating like you’ve never seen. 80 mph right up to a car, then a lane change. Thankfully, traffic got heavy around Pinole and all lanes, including carpool, were moving at about 35 mph. Mr. Kamikaze Driver is in his 30s, striped shirt and tie, suited up for the office.

On Tuesday, I’m off to an early start and a full and crazy day of work waiting for me. It’s still overcast and chilly. A large flock of geese fly over on the way to the carpool. We’ve got a full and crazy commute this morning, too. 20 or more cars are lined up waiting for riders. I’m in a small Honda sedan. I pay my usual dollar, the rear seat lady pays $1.25. Lots of cars on the freeway, but we’re all moving pretty fast. Electronic sign says ’39 minutes to San Francisco’. The driver is a small fellow all in black, pleasant. Near Berkeley a flock of wild ducks flies over the freeway towards the bay. I always enjoy the sense of timelessness I experience when I see the bird migrations. They did this before we were here and they will be migrating after we leave. I hope. The toll plaza is hideous today – huge backup. We of course whiz through at 60 mph.

Wednesday I’m riding in a Saturn with a sun roof. A child seat is next to me in the back. Once again there’s lots of traffic and the weather’s a bit chilly. I’m wondering if I should have worn my white suit jacket today or not. There’s an event at work which calls for a bit more dressing up and I’d already planned to wear the jacket, thinking we’d be enjoying our typical warm September. Maybe it will warm up once the fog burns off. A nice calm driver. He’s a big guy and tall and the other gent in the front seat is about the same size. The front seat passenger wears a cap with “Giants Community Fund” printed on the back. We’re 23 minutes from San Francisco according to the sign near Berkeley.

Thursday it’s another Honda – a Civic sedan. There are 2 fellows in front, myself and another lady passenger in back. A warm day is predicted for everywhere but San Francisco. As we get closer I see a huge fog bank shrouding the city. By the time we reach San Pablo the sun is a memory. There’s no talk in this car, no chochkees hanging from mirrors. The lady next to me carefully applies makeup. We are four workers ready to go to our jobs. Approaching Berkeley and Golden Gate Fields I see the Marin hills off to the right looking unusually spectacular with bands of fog and sunlight wrapped around them.

Here’s Friday with a lineup of cars around the block at the carpool lot. The ride is a 4-door pickup with a humorless driver. I think I’ve ridden with this guy before and he got real nasty about the quarter situation ($1.25 toll vs $1.00), so I just pass him $1.25. He doesn’t even say thanks. Traffic’s light and we move along at close to 70 mph. Thick fog at Pinole – it’s like being in a cloud. Visibility and speed diminish along with a sense of up and down. Fall starts next week and it truly feels like the season is a’changing.

SEPTEMBER 20 – 24
Tuesday, September 21 is a great and memorable ride. I’m back to my later 7 a.m. departure and am happy to see a long line of rides waiting. I pass up a low-slung sports car and get in a car from the movie “Harlem Nights”. This is a white DeVille Chrysler 2-door convertible sedan. The interior is white and red leather. The dash is all red, the steering wheel white. The driver is wearing a crisp white shirt which sets off his dark skin dramatically. His hair is very short and curly. Various beauty product bottles – oils, lotions – are stuffed into the pouch on the back of the driver’s seat. The car is really warm which nicely compliments the decor. This car was built before air bags and harness type seat belts. Although it looks like a lot of restoration and love has gone into this car, the interior of the roof is loose and sagging a bit, creating a tentlike feeling. I’m in the back seat and my head brushes the draped ceiling. The music is loud but good R&B that I don’t recognize. Heavy drums and bass. I feel like I’m in a 1950s movie. I love that DeVille is embossed in the white leather on both the driver’s and passengers’ doors.

Wednesday it’s chilly again but we’re promised hot weather as the week goes on. After a 5 minute wait I’m in the back seat of a Honda sedan. I remember this driver. He has a twitch of his right shoulder. Traffic stops and goes for a few miles. The driver’s twitching as he soldiers along at the wheel in this hellish traffic makes him seem somehow vulnerable and brave at the same time. Near Albany I look across the bay and see the city splashed with the morning sunlight with a backdrop of thick puffy fog which at a glance looks like a mountain range. I flash on Denver.

Thursday’s traffic is heavy and a mess. The ride is a 4-door pickup which sits high in the air. I like those rides because I can get a good overhead look at the costly and lengthy construction of the Bay Bridge. A wide green ribbon with a medal attached hangs from the mirror – like an Olympic medal. I can’t make out what it says. The tide is totally out today with mud stretching a couple of blocks away from the shore. It’s a long ride.

Friday comes with beautiful weather. It’s sunny and sure to be a warm day. I climb into an SUV with I assume a husband and wife in the front seat. A passenger is in the back seat. They signal they’ll take another passenger and as I walk around the back of the van to get in I suspect they will want full toll from both of us. Sure enough, there’s a printed sign strategically placed in the tray PLEASE PAY DRIVER $1.25 AS YOU ENTER. THANK YOU. Well at least there’s no question about what’s expected. But I find it quite irritating. There’s a smug kind of attitude up there in the front seat. Although it doesn’t seem that there’s any liability or licensing situation when a carpool driver receives reimbursement, this is an INFORMAL carpool and I wonder about having a sign like that without an appropriate license or insurance. I’m going to do more checking. The wife in the front seat is playing with her I Phone. The rider next to me is passive, unreadable. Dark glasses and earphones. A grim ride.

Filed under: Car Pooling, Car Pooling Etiquette, Casual Carpool Bay Area, Casual Carpooling, commute, casual car pool, San Francisco Commuters, Today's Commute, Tolls for car pools, Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

This Week. The express lanes are coming.

Posted on September 10, 2010 by Commuter Gal

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 8. A cool and overcast day but a spectacular sunrise is breaking through the layers of fog. I’m in a 4-door Ford pickup truck. Both guys in the front seat are chuckling as I get in and we all say good morning. The driver is a guy in his late 50s and seems unaware of the dollar I lay on the armrest next to him. Traffic starts to crawl along after only a few miles. ’46 MINUTES TO DOWNTOWN SF’ the electronic sign says. Summer lite is really over.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9. Another overcast and somewhat gloomy morning as I leave the house, but no wind at all. It’s very still and quiet. Not so out here on the daily commute. This morning’s freeway sign says ’39 MINUTES TO DOWNTOWN SF’ and traffic is moving but plentiful. I’m in the front seat of a large Chrysler minivan, a Town & Country. A rotund fellow is driving and when I pull out my dollar he grins and taps the pull-down eyeglass pouch above the windshield. “That’s great”, I say. “A little toll pouch!” He looks pleased with his solution. He’s sporting chiseled long sideburns that extend down to his chin. A blue and white tassle, like the ones from graduation caps, hangs from his mirror along with a small wooden cross on a chain of wooden beads.

Traffic starts piling up as we get closer to Berkeley and the Bay Bridge, and single drivers from other lanes start pulling into the carpool lane, slowing us down. As I watch them, I think about how our commute would (will) be once it also functions as an express lane. And it will happen.

On Monday, September 20 the Bay Area’s first express lane will open on Interstate 680. This will be a 14-mile length of the 680 heading south from #84 to #237, and it is also a carpool lane. The ‘express’ feature means that single drivers can use the carpool lane, for a fee. The toll will vary depending on the amount of traffic on the freeway at the time. Stripes painted on the road will indicate entry and exit points and the single drivers will be electronically monitored and charged through their FasTrak transponder. You may wonder, as I did, how the carpool drivers, who also have transponders, will avoid being charged. They will need to obtain a mylar bag to hide their transponder so that it is not charged. There will not be vid cams as a backup, as there is on the bridges, so disputing charges will be difficult, if not impossible. Wonderful.

The next express lane is scheduled to open next year on eastbound Interstate 580, between Pleasanton and Livermore, followed by another opening on the westbound 580 in 2012. The plan is to eventually have all 800 miles of carpool lanes converted into express lanes.

Sounds like an ingenious plan for making more money, but unfortunately another way to weaken the carpool system. Dave Hyams, a spokesman for the express lane project said the project will reduce congestion. “The carpool lanes are not full, so there’s plenty of room”, he said. Well, sure, Dave, the carpool lanes are not full. They’re not supposed to be. If they were, who would care about driving in the carpool lane?

How about decreasing congestion by providing more incentive to carpool? Like not charging bridge toll to carpoolers? Eh? ‘Course there’s no money in that!

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
It’s a beautiful morning in Vallejo and I’m in the front seat of a bright red Scion. I like these funny looking box-like cars. They are amazingly comfortable to ride in. Comfy seats with lots of leg room. There are 2 fellows in the back seat – KUDOS to our driver! – and they look comfortable, too. Mid-aged lady in Friday jeans is driving wearing a cluster of beaded bracelets on her wrist. A GPS is tracking our trip, and of course KCBS Radio is all about the horrible explosion and fire in San Bruno.

Traffic is much lighter today. I made a huge effort to get up and get moving so I can get some gym time in before work and it looks like I might make it. A wonderful hanging beaded wire ornament dangles from the mirror.

Tide is way out this morning and the shoreline a shiny, muddy swamp. A flock of geese are coming in for a landing in the grassy recreation area near Berkeley. Fall migrations are underway. Another huge flock of at least 50 snow-white birds, maybe small gulls, are out in the water bobbing in a curved line that simultaneously lays in a beam of sunlight. Wow.

The toll plaza is a mess, frozen in time and space. We fly by. The weekend starts in 8 hours. Enjoy.

Filed under: Car Pooling, Car Pooling Etiquette, Casual Carpool Bay Area, Casual Carpooling, commute, casual car pool, Environment, San Francisco Commuters, Today's Commute, Tolls for car pools, Uncategorized | Tagged: TO OUR D | 2 Comments »

Tuesday, September 7 – We’re Back!

Posted on September 7, 2010 by Commuter Gal

Yes, we’re back, us casual carpoolers, along with the fog. Vacation’s over, and a lovely one it was. A week away on the northern California coast was much too short. Deer, tidepools, long walks on trails along the ocean and through the sunny sweet-grass-smelling meadows, and always, the glorious Pacific ocean. Ahh.

I’m in a Honda Insight (a hybrid) this morning with a relaxed, pleasant driver in a comfortably warm car. He’s an Asian-American guy in his early 40s dressed casually in khakis and a windbreaker. KDFC is on the radio with good classical music. I contribute $1 to the toll; the rider in the back seat pays $1.25. The driver thanks us both. A brief blast of sunshine splashes over us as we cross the Carquinez Bridge and then we return to the fog and the sluggish back-from-vacation traffic. The electronic traffic alert sign tells us 39 minutes to San Francisco and that’s exactly how long it takes this morning. We pass the sign at 7:05 and arrive at the San Francisco drop off corner at 7:44.

Plowing through my messages and newspapers, it looks like there’s been a lot going on for commuters during these last few weeks of summer. Big news is that the first of the new express lanes has opened on the 680 freeway, (remember these are actually carpool lanes that are now being made available to single drivers who want to pay extra); new numbers for the number of carpoolers and toll revenue should be coming in soon. Plus there are freeway lanes widening and some improvements in public transportation options. I’m just back and catching up and will be sharing my views on all this as the week unfolds.

Take heart fellow travelers, it’s a short week. Tomorrow’s already Wednesday.

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	Victoria Poulsen on A Toll-Tale of the Blue Truck…
	Commuter Gal on Welcome to the Casual Car…
	Paul on Welcome to the Casual Car…
	Commuter Gal on Welcome to the Casual Car…
	Victoria Poulsen on Welcome to the Casual Car…
	Commuter Gal on February Sunny Groundhog …
	All-time Driver on February Sunny Groundhog …

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