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Monday, September 16, 2002
For those of you who don't know, right now I'm living in Union City (Union City is 25 miles south of Berkeley on the I-880), and working in Sunnyvale (which is 22 miles south-west of Union City). Due to traffic issues, my commute can range anywhere between half an hour up to almost an hour and a half (depending on what time I leave, what day it is, etc). And while driving is fun, I don't want to end up spending 2-3 hours in my car everyday just driving to and from work. This brings us to my "commuting adventure." It's really more of an exploration than anything else. Pretty much, I've been trying to take different roads in an attempt to find the best possible route.
"Best" doesn't necessarily mean fastest, though. It also encompasses the categories of fuel economy, driving excitement, and overall, enjoyability. Some routes simply require more stop-and-go, which is not cool for getting good fuel economy. If a route includes narrow, wind-y roads, it can be more exciting (especially in my sporty Ford Taurus, which drives just like a Formula 1 race car). Enjoyability is measured by such things as the smell of the air as I drive through an area, or if there are trees along the path to provide greenery and shade, or if the drivers just happen to be nicer on that road ("what?" you ask..but it's true! people driving on lesser known paths are usually nicer, like they'll use their turn signal when they are changing lanes, or better yet, they "zipper" fairly when your lane is merging with theirs.)
Anyway, the adventure continues this afternoon when I try a new route to get home today. I will try to avoid the CA-237/I-880 merging point, which is a real bottle-neck. Essentially, THREE freeway lanes from the eastbound CA-237 and ONE freeway exit off-ramp from the southbound I-880 merge into a SINGLE lane. Not a very good design, but they are doing construction on the area, so improvement should be coming at some point.
2:09 PM Albert
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..a life in DUO