Stop, Drop and Roll

24 August 2007 | Alameda Community, Tranpsortation | John Knox White

Peter Wolfe? Anyone? Anyone?

So the lights in the Webster Tubes are back on after months of darkness as Caltrans replaced the lighting. This will be a great relief to tube travelers, as the darkness in the Alameda-bound tubes has been a source of concern and frustration for many over the past few months.

I haven’t been able to track down an exact reason for why it took so long, but it appears that they cut the power, ripped out the lights and then had to wait to get the replacement lights in stock so that they could put them in. If this is in fact the case, that’s ridiculous. The thing that makes this a likely reason, is that Caltrans was caught unawares by the issue of “darkenss” in the tubes and had to scurry to get temporary lighting up while waiting to put in the new lights. The question I’m left with is how does somebody shut off and remove lights in the tube without having their replacement on hand?

County Supervisor, Alice Lai-Bitker is holding a public meeting at the Alameda Free Library on September 10th from 7-9pm. Apparently, Caltrans will be on hand to address this issue, so maybe we’ll get the full story and can ask how the situation developed as it did.

But let’s not think that there have been lessons learned just yet. In June, Caltrans performed a test shut down of the east-side lights in the Posey tube. These are the lights that cover the bike/pedestrian path in the tube, and the only way for pedestrians/cyclists using the path to see where they are going, especially when they are heading towards oncoming traffic whose headlights are on.

Complaints were filed, apologies made, all things right in the world.

Until the lights were turned off again yesterday, leaving the brave tube commuters in the dark once again.

The question quickly becomes, does Caltrans understand the safety hazards they are creating and if so, do they feel that the safety of non-motorized tube users is insignificant? Unfortunately, Caltrans has been incredibly unresponsive to issues regarding the tubes and ped/bike access. The tube seismic retrofit project that was recently completed without even considering improvements to the walkway. This is but one of many instances where Caltrans has completely ignored this important, but nearly unusable connection.

Caltrans, including their local office, perhaps needs to better understand that Alameda is not a small island community, but one of the largest cities in the Bay Area and that cross-estuary access between the west end and Oakland is vital for not only vehicles, but bikes and pedestrians as well.