Q: Susan McLean wrote recently about bus service from Santa Cruz to Diridon station in San Jose. A bus driver’s actions when encountering an emergency were professional and kept everyone in their seats, while avoiding the stopped vehicles.
I use SamTrans bus service daily to commute between Half Moon Bay and Hillsdale, where I catch Caltrain to Palo Alto to substitute teach in their outstanding district.
Multiple times along Highway 92, the bus driver has rounded a curve to see a stopped vehicle and had to make a sudden stop. SamTrans drivers are awesome and always have great control. Five stars for a great commute service.
I cannot complain about the price, either. As a senior, the cost to me is . . . a buck.
My favorite driver is the one who picks me up a block from my house at 6:30 a.m. He should have been an Indy car driver. He drives smooth as butter, and gets us over the hill faster and better than any other bus driver I’ve ever encountered!
James Thurber
A: Thanks for sharing your accolades for the SamTrans drivers, and this one, in particular.
Q: I drove right through a stop sign in my Campbell neighborhood. I didn’t realize it until I was through the intersection. A tree branch just before the sign had grown to partially obscure the sign.
On Monday evening, I contacted the City of Campbell online to file a report of the situation. I described sailing through the intersection and said that it was hazardous and that I was lucky that there was no cross-traffic at the time. On Tuesday evening, the offending branch was gone! Less than 24 hours. Yay! Our city government in action.
Eileen Hamper, Campbell
A: Kudos to you for reporting this, Campbell for solving it quickly, and the reporting system for working smoothly to let people know about the need for a fix.
Q: Good to see that Caltrans will be addressing the area on Interstate 880 near Dixon Landing in Milpitas. It’s a nightmare!
There are massive chunks of roadbed missing, and a lot of water pools up from underneath the roadbed. This is why I think they weren’t able to simply fill the potholes on the freeway with asphalt this summer. The entire roadbed needs to be re-engineered, given the water coming from underneath it.
Also, I am in contact with a Caltrans maintenance supervisor. He says that their maintenance budget has been dramatically slashed this year. This is due to all of the spending that Caltrans used on all of the storms last winter.
Mike Wagner, Walnut Creek
A: Last winter’s storms damaged roads and hit budgets hard, too.
Look for Gary Richards at Facebook.com/mr.roadshow or contact him at [email protected].