> >> WEST COVINA, Calif. Four men -- including the would-be groom -- have
> >> been arrested for a marriage proposal stunt in which hundreds of
> >> motorcycles blocked a Southern California freeway, authorities said.
>
> That's not as bad as shutting down the freeway because a
> nominally-suicidal jumper is hanging out on an overpass. It's
> apparently his hobby. He did actually jump once, and the powers that be
> awarded him prosthetic feet. He threatened to jump again afterward.
> There was one cop who had developed the skill to talk him down each
> time. Personally, I would have shut down the freeway and encouraged the
> guy to JUMP NOW but take the feet off first so someone else could use them.
>
> You're allowed to be crazy if you want, but do it on your own time, not
> mine. I canceled the paper a couple of years ago, so don't know if he's
> still around. I hope not.
I took my kid to Balboa park on that day there were 3. Sheesh.
>
> > How can you tell if a southern California freeway has been blocked?
>
> This is a base calumny! Our freeways are rarely totally blocked, it
> just looks that way sometimes. In general they're faster than surface
> streets. What's annoying is that even if we doubled the freeway length
> we'd only get rid of half the traffic :-(
>
On one commute, I actually repeatedly tested that over time. For that
particular one, the dividing line was around 25MPH. Once the freeway
got under that, it normally made sense to take the surface streets.
A couple of days ago, there was an 8 car accident with a fire, on my
route to the train. I was lucky enough to hear a traffic report just
as I got on the freeway, saying it was backed up to the next exit (a
curve in the freeway blocks site of such things until too late to
exit). So I knew all the other people who had gotten off would take a
particular route requiring a left turn, so I went right towards
another obscure route I knew. Unfortunately, there were multiple fire
engines blocking that because of another car fire, so I wound up
taking another route, almost back to my house. In the end, I missed
the train by 15 minutes, able to take the next one 35 minutes after my
usual one.
Comparing notes the next day with a train buddy who had stayed on the
freeway through the seven mile backup, she missed the next train and
had to drive.
There's a real problem going north from San Diego county, alternate
routes are far, far apart, and they may all get blocked.
> When the loon was barricaded in Big Bear a couple of months ago they
> shut down the exit roads for hours, even after the guy had been killed.
> I've never seen a freeway blockage that bad.
I have. 15N coming out of Baker (snow), 15S from Vegas (Sunday
traffic), 5N numerous times (tanker rolled, brush fires, inspection
point open, plain ol' traffic), various times on various LA freeways
for various reasons, but usually an accident to make it hours. Oh
year, stuck on a transition road for several hours trying to get to
big Navy celebration at North Island. My kids were laughing when I
got out and watered a bush. Didn't make it there, gave up and went to
a park in a barrio instead.
>
> --
> Cheers, Bev
> ===================================================================
> "If your mechanic claims that he stands behind his brake jobs, keep
> looking. You want to find one willing to stand in front of them."
>
> -- B. Ward
I was helping my friend do his brakes, and he said "time for the brake
check" and took me down this:
http://goo.gl/maps/UVuCQ The picture
doesn't do it justice, it's really steep on the bottom.
jg
--
@
home.com is bogus.
http://www.cbs8.com/story/21817677/pedestrian-body-found-struck-by-oceanside-train