Bump And Grind

Your Boulevardier met an old friend -- actually, his junior high music teacher -- for coffee at Peet's early this afternoon. The gentleman wanted advice on a new gadget he had purchased, and Your Boulevardier was happy for the excuse to get together and chat -- about musical instruments, electronics, mutual friends, travels, and the joys and complications of life.

Not long before we arrived, a car just outside of Peet's had missed its parking spot and plowed into Marshall Steel Cleaners. Your Boulevardier does not know the circumstances or if anyone was hurt.




This incident isn't the only automotive excitement in town. Last night after 9:00 p.m., as Your Boulevardier was driving home from a rehearsal, he noticed the CHP directing traffic at the intersection of Santa Maria Avenue and Castro Valley Boulevard. It turns out a vehicle had crashed into the control box that's planted in the lawn near the bus stop between Rigatoni's and the corner. (Truth be told, Your Boulevardier had never noticed the box before.) This rendered the traffic lights nonoperational.

Your Boulevardier's Foolproof Plan for Balancing California's Budget

Step 1: Post a CHP officer at the Redwood Road onramp to westbound I-580.

Step 2: Ticket all motorists who don't yield to pedestrians in in the crosswalk, don't stop for a red light, and/or talk on their phones without using a hands-free device.

Problem solved!

Ramp to Somewhere

Your Boulevardier noticed this recent addition to the onramp to eastbound I-580.



A couple of things strike one as odd about this. First, what's it for? Your Boulevardier's best guess is that it's for Highway Patrol or other emergency vehicles to sit in before they enter the freeway.

Second: the drainage from it. Note, if you can in the photo, the contours of the ramp and the wall behind it. The wall drains into the grate (currently surrounded by sandbags) while the pullout itself drains onto the sidewalk, or maybe into the adjacent gutter.

Thirdly: the tiny fence atop the small retaining wall. What is its purpose? A person can walk twenty feet to get around it, so it can't be to keep someone from what's on the other side. If it's to keep people from above from falling onto the ramp, another question arises: what are they doing up there in the first place?

None of this is earth-shattering news, or even the least bit important. It's just curious. If any readers know about civil engineering, an explanation would be most welcome.

Near Misses

Twice on his morning walk today, Your Boulevardier was nearly struck by cars while in a crosswalk. Both episodes happened when drivers were making right turns on red lights; both rolled through the crosswalks and were looking left for cross traffic, not seeing the pedestrian -- yours truly -- approaching from the right. In both circumstances, the drivers did not seem to acknowledge the fact that they endangered a person. And in both circumstances, law enforcement was nowhere nearby.

After the second incident, which was frighteningly close and in which the car was traveling at very high speed, Your Boulevardier started to imagine elaborate revenge fantasies. If only he had had a few pieces of very ripe fruit at the ready to lob at the cars! Better: if only he had had a squirt bottle of garish nail polish to squirt on the passing car! (Best case scenario in this version would be that the driver would not notice the polish until later in the day, when the enamel had hardened to an industrial-strength sheen.) Or maybe this: one could roll a watermelon under the car as it passed, then quickly sit on the ground; the driver would feel a bump, look in his rearview, see a red splat and a person, and have a heart attack.

A deep breath is called for. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Motorists, please remember California Vehicle Code section 21453(b), which includes this language: "A driver making [a right turn on a red light] shall yield the right-of-way to pedestrians lawfully within an adjacent crosswalk".