Reader makes plea to ‘end tyranny of the automobile’: Roadshow

Q: The 2022 death toll on San Jose’s streets is ticking up and it’s only April. If the city is critical about Eyesight Zero, praying to the god of “personal responsibility” by calling on persons to push more very carefully is not heading to slice it. Regulation enforcement can’t be on every single avenue corner 24/7.

Eamonn Gormley, SanJose

A: Eyesight Zero is the intention numerous California regions have to cut down roadway fatalities to zero. It is admirable. It will be hard to reach. Companies are using new techniques to make roads safer for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians.

Q: For each individual report of a fatality, I seem at the Google street view of the spot. It is almost always an oversized, multi-lane highway which is hostile to pedestrians and invitations drivers to experience secure driving at substantial speeds. The only way we are likely to retain ourselves and our youngsters safe is by redesigning streets to forcibly slow the cars. Designing them as substantial pace highways is a loss of life sentence for the persons who live in this article. A person person’s “freedom” to travel at significant speed condemns an entire neighborhood’s little ones to reside underneath household-arrest, where even stepping out onto the sidewalk is a daring act.

The tyranny of the car has long gone on for long more than enough. It’s time to restore people’s liberty to walk and cycle in basic safety.

Eamonn Gormley

A: Which is why we’re viewing street diets, extended curbs at intersections, maybe reduced speed limits, and other modifications to make the roads safer.

Q: A reader asked what could be accomplished at the northbound Freeway 85 exit at Fremont Avenue exactly where cars usually again up beyond the exit ramp, producing coronary heart-halting slowdowns.

Your reaction ought to have been, “There is a good deal of place. Autos ought to pull up to inside of 3 ft of the car or truck in entrance of them, fairly than leaving 20+ ft of unnecessary area.”

What’s worse, a vehicle rear-ending one more vehicle at 65 mph on the freeway or a motor vehicle rear-ending yet another motor vehicle at 20 mph on the ramp? Leaving so a lot space serves no purpose (apart from on very steep roadways).

Gerald Sylvester

A: I get this grievance routinely. In addition, if you leave 20+ feet among you and the automobile ahead, it allows other automobiles to duck into the lane in entrance of you, introducing threat and confusion.

Q: Can I nonetheless use the carpool lane as a solo driver with my carpool sticker on Freeway 101 south just after 237, where the new HOV lane finishes? I really don’t have my FasTrak still.

Jill Cohen

A : Certainly. You will need a FasTrak flex tag to use categorical lanes, but you can use other carpool lanes with your stickers.