Pride Parade will add to S.F. traffic woes Sunday
Q I need to go from Mountain View to Sonoma and back on Sunday, but that’s the day of the Pride Parade in San Francisco. What’s the best way to go there and return? 19th Avenue? The Great Highway? The East Bay?
I’m planning on going up early, so my biggest concern is the return trip. If I go through the city via 19th Avenue, how much will I be impacted?
Karl Schuler Mountain View A Going through San Francisco on any day can be a struggle, so here’s another option: Take Highway 237 or the Dumbarton Bridge to Interstate 880 north, connect with 580 for the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge and then take Highway 101 north.
Said John-the-Roadshow-Traffic Man: “A friend uses that route every weekend from Los Gatos to Santa Rosa, and it is the fastest. Avoid San Francisco, even on a good weekend; 19th Avenue will make you go gray quickly.”
The Pride Parade will be on Market Street from Embarcadero to Civic Center Plaza, so expect congestion in the downtown area and on Highway 101, but 19th Avenue and Park Presidio (Highway 1) will remain open. The parade kicks off at 10:30 a.m. at Market and Beale streets and ends at Market and Eighth streets.
A good source of live traffic info for those who don’t have access to realtime navigation apps on their phone is traffic.511. org. Q I’m planning a trip to South Lake Tahoe (Heavenly Valley) from West San Jose on a Saturday and returning on the following Monday, leaving around noon. We’re thinking of going 280 to 680 to 580 to 5 to 50.
Is that the route you would recommend?
Jean Caravalho San Jose A Sure is. You are wise to leave on a Saturday and return on Monday, avoiding the gridlock on Fridays and Sundays. You can get real-time traffic info on state roads at quickmap.dot.ca.gov. Q I’ve been going nuts. My son is almost 16 and has a California learner’s permit. He and I are leaving on a long (11,000plus miles) interstate road trip.
But I have been having a terrible time trying to find out which states he can drive in, accompanied by me in our car, which is registered and insured in California.
Any assistance you could give me would be greatly appreciated.
Eleanor Oster A Searching for the answer drove me crazy as well because rules vary from state to state. For example, there are no restrictions in Nevada, but in a few states like New York the teen must be older than 16 to drive with a permit.
Some states like Iowa allow kids as young as 14 to drive with a permit.
You’ll have to check with the various DMVs in the other states you will be driving through.