At the intersection of Clusterf**k Ave and Fubar Drive
Now this is not an actual intersection near our home. There are no streets with those names in or near Modesto. It is the generic name I use for any number of cross streets in this misplanned community in which we live. My question to the so-called planners that manage this city, “What the hell were you thinking?”
In an area that has been growing by the proverbial “leaps and bounds” for at least 10 years or so, it appears there has been no thought put toward the traffic situation...specifically between Highway 99 and any other section of Modesto east. Thousands of new homes and still being built along with the infrastructure that goes with them...stores, shopping centers, Home Depots, Lowes, and Starbucks. Most of these new homes are being built to accomodate people who work in and around the bay area, some 50-70 miles west of here. Most of us can not afford the homes in San Francisco, Walnut Creek, Concord, or even Livermore. But we can still afford one in Modesto...or Tracy, Manteca, or Salida (where we live). So why are the roads the last thing improved around these new home areas? Why are they such an afterthought? As a child, my family moved from the extreme east San Fernando Valley to the extreme west San Fernando Valley. It was here that the housing boom of the 50’s and 60’s manifested itself in this once sprawling and prestine suburb of L.A. My first memories of these new housing tracks include getting there on brand new wide asphault thoroughfares constructed before the houses were built! Not after.
We now live in an area where there are still two-lane overpasses over Highway 99 that connect this auto artery to thousands and thousands of new home tracts. Streets with names likes Sisk, and Pelandale, and Kiernan that traverse acres of walnut orchards and dairy farms now carry gazillions of poor slobs in cars trying to get home from the bay area. These are two-lane farm roads with 4-way stop intersections every few hundred feet. Now factor in the scores of huge semi’s and small to medium trucks and vehicles that service the construction going on out there...and voila: the intersection(s) of Clusterf**k Ave and Fubar Drive! They’re everywhere. To add insult to injury (literally at times), no one seems to consider or know how to adjust the timing on what traffic lights there are.
Yes, the powers to be seem concerned, there are newspaper articles all the time on this very issue. There is construction going on all the time to widen these roads and modernize the intersections. Once again, hereby creating a further problem: constant road construction. Again, the point is...all of this is happening long after the new homes have been built and people have moved in.
My short take on why this occurs? Politics. Simple local politics involving developers and the corporate and government weasels that stand to gain something from these misplanned developmental adventures. “Shall we vote on Development #567 now?”, says the speaker. A squeaky little voice from the sidelines chimes in, “But what about traffic and support structures for these new areas?” “It’s all in the master plan...haven’t you read it? (gavel drops) “Next issue on the docket...”, demands the speaker. We move on.
So it continues here in Modesto. Skinny, two-lane orchard roads give way to wide-ass, 6-lane streets for a few hundred yards, then back to skinny, two-lane orchard roads...then back again. Long, choking lines of near-new SUVs, tractor-trailer trucks, and Cobalts traverse these passageways daily...all trying to get from Point A to Point B in a decent time frame. This once sleepy farm town, the childhood home of George Lucas and all his characters from American Graffitti, is growing fast...and the traffic is going slow. The corridor between Highway 99 and the eastern areas of Modesto (where most of the homes are being built) is only going to get worse. And from where we live in Salida (just west of Highway 99), we have to get in that long line of traffic just to get to our local grocery store...located at the intersection of Clusterf**k Ave and Fubar Drive.
My next rant concerning the traffic here? The drivers themselves. I had no idea that so many people in this world are colorblind...they cannot tell the different between a Red and a Green traffic light!
In an area that has been growing by the proverbial “leaps and bounds” for at least 10 years or so, it appears there has been no thought put toward the traffic situation...specifically between Highway 99 and any other section of Modesto east. Thousands of new homes and still being built along with the infrastructure that goes with them...stores, shopping centers, Home Depots, Lowes, and Starbucks. Most of these new homes are being built to accomodate people who work in and around the bay area, some 50-70 miles west of here. Most of us can not afford the homes in San Francisco, Walnut Creek, Concord, or even Livermore. But we can still afford one in Modesto...or Tracy, Manteca, or Salida (where we live). So why are the roads the last thing improved around these new home areas? Why are they such an afterthought? As a child, my family moved from the extreme east San Fernando Valley to the extreme west San Fernando Valley. It was here that the housing boom of the 50’s and 60’s manifested itself in this once sprawling and prestine suburb of L.A. My first memories of these new housing tracks include getting there on brand new wide asphault thoroughfares constructed before the houses were built! Not after.
We now live in an area where there are still two-lane overpasses over Highway 99 that connect this auto artery to thousands and thousands of new home tracts. Streets with names likes Sisk, and Pelandale, and Kiernan that traverse acres of walnut orchards and dairy farms now carry gazillions of poor slobs in cars trying to get home from the bay area. These are two-lane farm roads with 4-way stop intersections every few hundred feet. Now factor in the scores of huge semi’s and small to medium trucks and vehicles that service the construction going on out there...and voila: the intersection(s) of Clusterf**k Ave and Fubar Drive! They’re everywhere. To add insult to injury (literally at times), no one seems to consider or know how to adjust the timing on what traffic lights there are.
Yes, the powers to be seem concerned, there are newspaper articles all the time on this very issue. There is construction going on all the time to widen these roads and modernize the intersections. Once again, hereby creating a further problem: constant road construction. Again, the point is...all of this is happening long after the new homes have been built and people have moved in.
My short take on why this occurs? Politics. Simple local politics involving developers and the corporate and government weasels that stand to gain something from these misplanned developmental adventures. “Shall we vote on Development #567 now?”, says the speaker. A squeaky little voice from the sidelines chimes in, “But what about traffic and support structures for these new areas?” “It’s all in the master plan...haven’t you read it? (gavel drops) “Next issue on the docket...”, demands the speaker. We move on.
So it continues here in Modesto. Skinny, two-lane orchard roads give way to wide-ass, 6-lane streets for a few hundred yards, then back to skinny, two-lane orchard roads...then back again. Long, choking lines of near-new SUVs, tractor-trailer trucks, and Cobalts traverse these passageways daily...all trying to get from Point A to Point B in a decent time frame. This once sleepy farm town, the childhood home of George Lucas and all his characters from American Graffitti, is growing fast...and the traffic is going slow. The corridor between Highway 99 and the eastern areas of Modesto (where most of the homes are being built) is only going to get worse. And from where we live in Salida (just west of Highway 99), we have to get in that long line of traffic just to get to our local grocery store...located at the intersection of Clusterf**k Ave and Fubar Drive.
My next rant concerning the traffic here? The drivers themselves. I had no idea that so many people in this world are colorblind...they cannot tell the different between a Red and a Green traffic light!
posted by James | 8:18 AM
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