Traffic Impacts

I spent two hours on Tuesday trying to get from the 154 to my home on the other side of Turnpike with my 91-year-old mother. I was not alone, as most of western Santa Barbara and Goleta were impacted by the 101 closure On May 7. My question is: was this really necessary? I hope when the authorities do their post-mortem, they develop a protocol for “situations” like today that takes these traffic impacts into account.

Yes, there are times when it may be necessary to close the freeway, but I have to believe that today there were less drastic measures available. Couldn’t they have chosen to simply close the off-ramps? If there had been a true emergency, thousands of us would have been trapped where we were.

I had this thought as I watched a pipe truck navigate the residential streets of my neighborhood. Was this the end?