Cars built in the last 20 years have a ‘black box’-type device

QWhy don’t cars have black boxes in them like airplanes do that would help determine the cause of crashes?

They already have many of the sensing devices that would provide input to a recording device — tire pressure, speed, active braking, lane change monitoring and cruise control.

People are using dashcams to record what happens when they’re behind the wheel. Seems like a no-brainer and it would document many of the crashes caused by people driving with less than full-brained attention to road conditions.

— Eugene Ely,

San Jose

AYou probably already have a black box in your car, also called an event data recorder. It collects data 20 seconds before and 20 seconds after a crash. About 96% of vehicles built over the last two decades have an EDR.

It’s about the size of a deck of cards and is probably located behind your steering wheel and dashboard. Check your driver’s manual to see if you have one. The information can be used by police and insurance companies.

QCaltrans recently repaved and restriped Highway 84 westbound from Interstate 880 to just past the Dumbarton Bridge toll plaza. Great, except for one big thing. They painted white double lines on the carpool lane starting at Newark and Ardenwood boulevards.

As a result, nobody who would normally join the Dumbarton Bridge approach on Highway 84 can legally use the carpool lane for the bridge without going miles out of their way to make a Uturn on Decoto Road or going to 880 and then joining 84. Not only is that horribly inconvenient and counterproductive for carpooling residents of North Fremont, Union City and Newark, it also adds traffic to 880. I’ve seen AC Transit’s Dumbarton Express leaving the Ardenwood Parkand-Ride lot blatantly ignore the double white lines and join the carpool lane anyway.

Any chance you can work your magic and get Caltrans to change their mind about where the double lines start and revert to beginning it at

Paseo Padre ramp?

— Greg Heibel, Fremont

ACarpool lanes were installed there rather than allowing carpoolers to use some cash lanes. It would be great to have a carpool lane on the other side of the plaza and it’s something that is being considered, but it won’t be implemented for years.

Q was miles Last Mayor all of gleeful city week, Libby streets that Oakland Schaaf many in Oakland that were horrible had been repaved. So what’s the plan for repaving Park Boulevard from East 18th Street to Interstate 580? This is an extremely busy thoroughfare and it’s been patched so many times it’s like a patchwork quilt! — Jeri Robinson, Oakland

APaving is on tap next year.

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