Last night, my husband and I were driving home from work (Orem to Holladay) when we got caught in the mother of all blizzards. It took us 3 1/2 hours to drive home (about 35-40 miles), and it seemed that the point of the mountain was the worst. There were cars stranded all over the road - they were either stuck or out of gas, or both. The snow was up to a foot deep on the freeway at points - more on the shoulders. The plows couldn’t get through because of all the traffic.
I grew up in the Bay Area, home to bad traffic, but the one redeeming fact is that you have options. If one freeway is bad, take another one. In Utah, however, if I-15 is bad, there really aren’t any options. You’re stuck. Sometimes frontage roads can offer an alternative, but during last night’s storm, the frontage roads were either closed, or in worse shape than the freeway because of the snow blowing everywhere.
Sooo…I think Utah needs to start thinking about building some more alternate roads. I don’t mean like Bangerter Highway, which has stoplights, and is kind of a joke. I mean real freeways that can take commuters where they need to go in the shortest amount of time. Enough worrying about the tree frogs, or whatever creatures are holding back the much needed freeways. UDOT, let’s get them built!
Any of you have crappy commute stories? Share them with us! We’d love to hear about them so we can rant about Utah’s lame freeway system.
4 responses so far ↓
1 YOYO // Feb 14, 2008 at 4:11 pm
I completely agree; if I-15 is down, we are all screwed. I also grew up in California. You’re right, if 99 was down, go to I-5. The options are there. What I hate about commuting in horrible weather is that people follow too closely. Especially if they have four-wheel drive. I don’t know if they think they are immune to poor road conditions, but you know, I HAVE seen trucks on the side of the road because they weren’t being cautious enough.
Last night while I was driving home there was a huge snowplow coming my way, using half my lane. Also, in the other half of my lane, a car that was backing out but had stopped. So, I had to stop. I couldn’t go anywhere. But of course, my breaks weren’t working too well because of the snow. And the fool behind me was up on my butt the whole time. He/She was so close to hitting me. I hate idiot drivers.
2 Preston // Feb 15, 2008 at 11:02 am
This was an extreme example, but it also seems like just every day there is a wreck or something on I-15 slowing traffic down to a crawl. There has been an improvement since they widened it for the olympics, but they definitely need an alternative highway.
Utah has such great potential for an economic boom - we have great technology infrastructure and relatively low living costs (especially compared to california), but I worry that the government’s reluctance to foresee problems like the roads are going to create problems down the road (no pun intended).
3 futuRich // Feb 27, 2008 at 10:16 am
20 bux says that pun was intended
4 Less E Ffective // Feb 27, 2008 at 11:42 am
20 bux says futuRich is a thug
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