Something
there is that doesn’t love a traffic jam. And because of that near-universal
feeling, we have become virtual prisoners in our house most weekday mornings.
The way
from our home to the outside world leads through the village of Aptos, California.
We drive three-tenths of a mile down our road to Trout Gulch Road, then
three-tenths of a mile down Trout Gulch to its intersection with Soquel Drive.
Soquel is one of the main arterial roads in the county. Trout Gulch ends there,
but a left turn takes us toward the state highway leading to Watsonville; a
right turn takes us to the highway leading to Santa Cruz — those being the two
major urban centers.
Most
mornings, the 0.6 miles to Soquel Drive would be a 2-4 minute drive for us, but
in the past month and a half it’s turned into a nightmare. One day last week,
it took 19 minutes to get the last three-tenths of a mile. Yesterday, it took
12.
Blame the Students
The local
community college, Cabrillo, is about two miles down Soquel Drive from us, in
the direction of Santa Cruz. Many of the students come from Watsonville. For
those who drive, the fastest way is to take the state highway exit on the Santa
Cruz side of Aptos Village, turn left, and go the last mile to Cabrillo.
Because the
state highway is heavily congested during rush hour, there are always some
people who try to beat the congestion by getting off the highway at the exit on
the Watsonville side of Aptos Village and taking Soquel Drive three miles to
the community college. Bad idea.
Driving
that arterial adds three-quarters of a mile to the trip, and the additional
length is broken up by five traffic lights and one stop sign (Soquel and Trout
Gulch). Even with light traffic, it would usually be faster to stay on the
highway and drive a shorter distance and go through only two traffic lights to
get to the same place.
And with
all the people getting off the freeway early, traffic is anything but light. In
fact, Soquel Drive has become two miles of gridlock. That, in turn, backs up
Trout Gulch Road and creates a situation where there are 50-100 cars queued up
on each flank of a T intersection at a four-way stop sign.
Something Has Changed
In years
past, we would have the sort of traffic jam I’ve described for maybe the first
three weeks of the community college school year. By then, most people figured
out that there was no point in taking the arterial, and traffic returned to
normal, with queues of 7-8 cars each way during rush hour at the Soquel-Trout
Gulch intersection.
We’re now
in the ninth week of the school year, and the gridlock has shown no signs of
abating. What’s different? The only thing I can think of — and a recent news
story lent credence to the idea — is that the severe drop in gasoline prices
has led more people, and in particular the college students, to drive alone,
rather than carpooling or taking the bus.
If that’s
indeed the case, and if the situation doesn’t let up soon, I might find myself
in the position of rooting for higher gas prices. I never thought that would
happen, but the morning traffic jam is beginning to turn me into the oil
companies’ best friend.
