HWY17

[Greg]

Come on. It's almost ten o'clock here in Florida. Where is my Highway 17 travesty update?

[Drunk Monk]

I stayed in s'vale yesterday night.  Two night in a row at my mom's wasn't as bad as I thought it would be actually.  I think my mom was delighted to have the company.  

HWY17 is allegedly clear now so I will brave the commute home this afternoon.  The weather forecast is clear until the weekend.  I imagine things will hold for the rest of the week.  We shall see how it all is on Monday because it is supposed to rain this weekend through Monday.

[Drunk Monk]

I left the office at 4 and got to the Cruz by 4:40. 40 mins is as good as it gets - usually takes an hour.  I was so elated I drove around the Cruz in traffic a little more to come down from that elation. I can only sustain such elation for a little while until I get sore from over elation.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Just need to stretch more to handle the extra elation.

[King Bob]

Contact a doctor if your elation lasts more than four hours.

[Drunk Monk]

I got over this morning in 40 mins again.  I'm sure it's the effect of Prez Day week.  

Still dealing with the elation.  Maybe I should eat something to reduce the elation?  Would mastication shrink the elation?

[Greg]

I expect more travesty in my travesty reports.

[Drunk Monk]

Give it a rest or you'll go blind.  Too much elation does that to ya.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

If your elation lasts more than four hours...

[Drunk Monk]

Watching 4 dudes pass a vape in the white BMW in front of me. Can  smell from my crv. Looks like I'll be tailing them past Lexington.

Damn kids.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Shake your fist at them. Tell them to git off yer road.

[Drunk Monk]

It's on SB at Moody curve.  We call it THE WET SPOT.  It's been wet since the first rains and landslides.  It's claimed some 60 accidents since it got wet, many of them overturned cars.  I'm seeing an accident almost every day now.

[Drunk Monk]

Highway 17 traffic collisions skyrocket

The crash area looking north shows one trailer on the far left and the rest of the big rig on the right at the scene of a fatal accident involving a big rig and several cars on northbound Highway 17 just before the Bear Creek Road exit in July 2014. Daniel McGuire died in the early morning accident closed the northbound lanes and several area roads. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group file) 

By Gary Richards, Bay Area News Group
POSTED: 04/15/17, 3:52 PM PDT | UPDATED: 2 DAYS AGO

Vehicle scrapes can be seen dug into the Laurel Curve center divider barriers installed one year ago, indicating how many cars and trucks would have crossed into Highway 17 oncoming traffic. Collisions have since been reduced at the previously dangerous curve. (Dan Coyro/Sentinel file) 

Traffic crashes on Highway 17 rose a staggering 34 percent last year to the highest level in at least 13 years, prompting the CHP to step up patrols on the scenic but treacherous road that serves as the primary link for thousands of commuters between Santa Cruz and the South Bay.
The 983 collisions in 2016 came during a winter of heavy rains and reduced enforcement, producing the highest tally since an intensive safety campaign kicked off in 2003 and the California Highway Patrol started tracking annual crashes, injuries and fatalities. And they were far higher than the 664 tallied in 2015.

“It’s not looking too good,” said Ginger Dykaar of the Safe on 17 committee, a coalition of three dozen traffic officials, police, firefighters and elected officials from Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties that has pushed for safety upgrades for nearly two decades. “We need to come up with solutions.”
And fast.
Enter the CHP, which has six more officers who have just completed training and a couple ready to roll on 17 and adjacent routes. Since 2015, the CHP has had as few as two troopers working the four-lane highway from Scotts Valley to Los Gatos, though a half dozen had patrolled it before.

The rising crash numbers come on top of the worst winter in decades for the highway’s commuters, as heavy rains spawned mudslides and repeated lane closures that left motorists idling for hours or forced them into lengthy detours.
There are several factors in play behind the rash of crashes, with people on cellphones and increased traffic being major contributors, according to the CHP. But driving too fast for the conditions is the biggest reason for the high crash rate.
“We need to really hammer speed enforcement on 17,” said CHP spokeswoman Trista Drake.

Budget cuts for officer overtime hampered enforcement on the highway in recent years, Drake said, but some of that money has since been restored.

SAFETY CAMPAIGN

High numbers of crashes and fatalities in the 1990s spurred a safety campaign that led to nearly $250 million in spending since 2003 on various roadway improvements, including median barriers, wider shoulders, anti-skid pavement, flashing warning signs and tree removal. It was spurred by a particularly bloody 1996 that saw 793 crashes, 151 injuries and nine deaths.

Though the number of Highway 17 crashes soared even higher than that in 2016, injuries and fatalities have not risen accordingly. Since 2003, injuries have fluctuated from a high of 187 in 2015 to a low of 126 in 2011, with 160 last year. There were two fatalities in 2016, none the year before and no more than four in any year since 2003.
The spike in accidents has some looking into the possibility of legislation to legalize speed enforcement cameras on Highway 17, where the speed limit is 50 mph but many drivers hit 65 mph or more even when the pavement is wet.

“Fatalities and crashes are up across the nation and in California,” said Laura Wells of the San Jose Department of Transportation who last month told the Highway 17 group about the possibility of using speed cameras on streets with a speed limit of 50 mph or less in San Jose and San Francisco.
“These are preventable,” she said. “We can implement technological policies to prevent this.”
Later this year a paving project will begin on the Santa Cruz County side of the hill and in 2020 on the Santa Clara County side.

“If there is just a little water on it, this road is really dangerous,” said Kevin Korth, the California representative for the Federal Highway Administration.
There are long-range plans for a $450 million effort to ban left turns, make 32 roadside changes and build interchanges at places like Vine Hill Road. Some money from a higher gas tax could be considered for this work.

RAIN, MUDSLIDES

The recent hard rains and mudslides could make 2017 numbers even worse. At Big Moody Curve, some drivers say there seems to be a rollover or spin-out crash nearly every day.


“While a long-term fix is clearly needed, something needs to happen now,” said Angela Hedges of Redwood Estates. “Flashing lights, flares, signs, anything. How many more accidents need to happen here until something can be done?”
The CHP isn’t sold on cameras on 17. “We generally dislike automated enforcement,’ said Officer Ross Lee “because it does not allow any discretion that an officer would have based on traffic conditions, roadway configurations, and other extenuating circumstances that influence appropriate enforcement.”

Oh, come on, say drivers.
“Speeding is rampant because there is no enforcement,” said Karen Armstrong of San Jose. “Cameras are an obvious choice to curb the speeding.”

[Greg]

Congratulations!

[Drunk Monk]

I dreamt I spun out on HWY17. Don't have to be feckin Freud to psychoanal that puppy. The interesting thing was I kept spinning in slo-mo and I was really calm about it, patiently waiting for the spin out to end. It was strangely comforting, like riding on a merry-go-round.