Stacey Campbell

I used to commute Hwy 17 out of Santa Cruz county about 30 years ago. It was a major commute road back then, and still is now. Through to the 1940s there was a train line over roughly the same route, and in the 1990s there was talk of reopening the line for commuters.

Back then various locals managed to shut down any chance of the rail being restored. And of course Hwy 17 is still the dangerous nightmare it was 30 years ago.

And they are still fiddling with Hwy 17 trying to reduce (but never stop) the carnage.

https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/bay-area-highway-speed-22092247.php

Mar 23 at 11:39pmWeb
Show threadStacey Campbell2d ago

Derek Whaley has put together a timeline of the history of failure to reopen the rail line. (Full credit to Derek, he manages to document that history without using NIMBY even once.)

https://www.santacruztrains.com/2018/01/curiosities-feasibility-studies-to.html

Curiosities: Feasibility Studies to Restore the Mountain Route

On February 7, 1938, regularly-scheduled passenger service between Santa Cruz and Watsonville along the Southern Pacific Railroad Company’s ...

Show threadStacey Campbell2d ago

One commuter's frustration with Hwy 17 led him to create one of the very first viral websites back in 1995, The Highway 17 Page of Shame.

Emil Gallant managed to acquire one of the very early Apple digital still cameras and used it to snap pics of egregious driver behavior.

https://web.archive.org/web/19981205003735/http://www.got.net/%7Eegallant/winner_archive.html

Show threadMatthijs De Smedt2d ago
@stacey_campbell I wish there was a rail line. 17 is (still) dangerous and stressful to drive. And one incident shuts the whole thing down causing hours of delays.
Show threadPeter McDonald2d ago
@anji @stacey_campbell I've had field work to do in Santa Cruz often in the last 15+ years. After being caught in multiple unexpected shutdowns on 17 I resolved to exclusively drive on the coast from SF to SC and back. On a good day for 17 it takes an extra 15-20 minutes but I arrive back in SF in a zenlike state having taken in 75 miles of extraordinary coastline. On a bad day for 17, I save an hour+ and still get to keep the zen state. It doesn't hurt that I have ferreted out a whole range of places to stop along the way to pick up something only sold along that stretch of 1 (starting with Olallieberry pie).
Show threadStacey Campbell2d ago

@pmcdonald @anji I used to do the same thing when I was heading back from SFO with family visiting from Australia.

Though one time I brought my dad back over 17 from the airport and I realized around Scotts Valley that he had white knuckled the door arm-rest and gone very quiet.

Show threadStacey Campbell2d ago
@anji I remember one foggy morning coming to a complete stop in the slow lane at Valley Surprise due to a wreck, and getting passed in the fast lane by a car that was _upside down_, which then slid into the wreck.
Show threadMatthijs De Smedt2d ago
@stacey_campbell That's a Valley Surprise