Cost to upgrade Pacheco Pass Road would bust budget

QA letter in a recent column discussed the Pacheco Pass Road problem.

California officials should be embarrassed that the main route between the state’s largest and third-largest cities includes a 12-mile stretch of a dangerous two-lane road, especially since it’s in a rural area where freeway construction would be relatively cheap.

As was pointed out, upgrading Pacheco Pass Road wouldn’t solve the problem: too many side roads. What’s needed is a freeway link from Highway 101 near San Martin to Highway 152 near Bell Station, about 17 miles, hardly a budget breaker. — Bill Langlois, San Jose A This would cost far more than you can imagine. The soil in this area is very soft and to add concrete on top of it would be far more costly than the average road construction project. That’s why planners are looking at widening Highway 25 south of here to improve safety and traffic flow. Sadly, there was another fatal accident earlier this week on Highway 156, raising the total number of deaths in this area over the past few weeks to at least eight. Q

I run into this problem every day I ride my motorcycle. Traffic goes very slowly and I lane split between the commute lane and the lane to the right. This is on Highway 85, so there’s plenty of room to do this safely. The vast majority of drivers in the commute lane graciously pull over to the left side of the lane, leaving lots of room for me and other lane splitters.

Other than a few random jerks, there’s one glaring and consistent exception: Teslas almost never move over.

They stay locked in the center of their lane. I’ve talked about this with my neighbor, a Tesla owner, and he agrees with me that many of these Tesla drivers may be using autonomous mode, which keeps them locked in the center, and ignores lanesplitting bikes.

So the drivers are oblivious to lane splitters, which makes me very nervous around them. — Mark Flynn, San Jose Q

Who made the rules for what is considered a carpooler? Carpooling should be at least two drivers in a vehicle. I thought the whole concept of carpooling was to have fewer cars on the road. So a driver can have a baby in their car and they’re considered a carpooler, but if I have my dog in my car I am not considered one? My dog can drive as well as your baby can! — Donna Tavis, Brentwood A

Tesla drivers, please respond. A

An amusing point. Our dogs could drive better than any infant.