Keeping kids on a ‘leash’ can be a great safety option
QI am surprised you use the term “kid leash” when giving tips to adults walking in the street with a child or in a stroller. It is a Child Safety Restraint or vest with a strap attached to the back. It allows the child to walk, run, skip safely and not pull away from the adult.
Believe me, when visiting a park the child does not want to sit in a stroller the entire day, and holding their hand does not provide a real measure of control. When visiting Disneyland with small children, we used these Child Safety Restraints and were surprised at the number of parents stopping us to ask where we got the safety vest. — Pat Gollot
AReferring to this as a “kid leash” is much easier than calling it a Child Safety Restraint. We used one at Disneyland when our now 6-foot-3 son Matt was a toddler, and many other parents asked us about it. Matt became so accustomed to being “leashed” that he would hold out his arm whenever we headed out for a walk.
QI moved away from the South Bay in 1999 and recently moved back. The biggest change I have noticed is that all the “secret” backroads I used to take to avoid freeway traffic are now so crowded that staying on the freeway is actually faster.
Highway 85 is horrible, taking up to 30 minutes to go 6.5 miles. But all the alternate ways I would have used in the past, like Blossom Hill Road, are much worse. — Mary A.
ATraffic hit all-time highs in the late ’90s during the dot.com boom, then eased dramatically during the Great Recession. Now it’s even more congested during this economic boom. But before Highway 85 opened in 1994, Blossom Hill Road and so many other city streets were torture. Are there any secret shortcuts others have to avoid our jammed freeways?
QOn two weekends I was forced to take 19th Avenue/Presidio Boulevard in San Francisco. Are there plans to resurface these two main roads to the Golden Gate? They are both in desperate need of help. — Elizabeth Cooper, San Carlos
AYes, there are plans to repave both roads, but there are other city projects that need to be completed first. Paving may occur next year.
QDo you know of plans to build a pedestrian/bike bridge over Highway 101 at Hillsdale in San Mateo? — Catherine Nelson, San Mateo
AOne will be coming. The city is almost done with environmental studies and now is focused on getting the roughly $35 million needed to build the overpass.