For safety, limits set on using volunteer roadside cleanup crews

QCan you tell me what the state is doing about all the trash on our roads? …

The litter on Interstate 880 up to I-205 is terrible. … The graffiti on I-280 before the Mountain View exit is really bad and, of course, at the Wolfe exit off 280.

— Josie Harke, Louis V., Ellen Macneale and

many others A I bring bad news. The state will no longer allow cleanup crews in locations considered too steep for volunteers. For Loui Tucker, who has managed a crew of volunteers for the past 16-plus years on I-280 near I-880, this is depressing. She has resigned from her post.

“All of those sections are off-limits and cannot be cleaned by volunteers, only by Caltrans and paid contractors,” she lamented. “You cannot imagine how very upset, angry, frustrated and heartbroken we are about having to stop cleaning. Caltrans doesn’t have the time or person-power to keep the highways clean, so we are dreading the mess we’ll see every time we get on the freeway.”

And a final thought from her … Q

This means that most volunteer organizations that currently have adopted sections may also be shut down.

If you think the litter problem has been bad up to now, wait until the Elks Club, the IBM retirees and other volunteers are forced off their sections.

— Loui Tucker, Adopt-A-Highway-Leader A Tucker’s group has filled more than 5,000 bags of trash, 514 bags of recycling, returned wallets, computers and even a passport and found almost $2,500 in bills and coins over the 16 years she’s led a volunteer crew.

Q I appreciated your column shining a light on the efforts of the Walnut Creek Clean-up Crew. Keep up your efforts to educate readers about the value of volunteer efforts and the importance of not littering. Caltrans has begun to budget funds for cooperative efforts with local governments to install devices to keep trash from reaching the bay. But more needs to be done. You could highlight the efforts of Untrash East Bay, another nonprofit. They organize weekly clean-up efforts in the Berkeley hills and places like Aquatic Park in Berkeley, where trash from the highways collects.

— Jim McGrath A Also, check on sites like NextDoor to find neighbors picking up litter or go to csr.dot.ca.gov to submit a maintenance request to report an area that needs cleaning up. Q I simply can’t resist after reading about the cows blocking Highway 1. Do you know what they call cows that don’t give milk? They’re either udder failures or milk duds!

— Mark Robichek, Sunnyvale

A Thanks for the chuckle.