Beautiful Highway 13 vegetation is being cut back — for good reason: Roadshow

Q: I travel on Highway 13, one of the prettiest little stretches of freeway in the Bay Area. It’s going through a lot of changes. What’s going on? It sure looks bare in some areas.

Jeanne R.

A: Bay Area residents here in 1991 remember the catastrophic firestorm that ravaged the Oakland Hills that October, killing 25 people and consuming 2.5 square miles of mostly residential neighborhoods. With peak wildfire season approaching in August, Caltrans worked with Oakland Fire and local, regional and state fire marshals to develop a program to reduce fire risk. The agencies prioritized areas statewide for vegetation control to reduce the ability for fires to spread quickly. As part of this program, Caltrans is reducing roadside vegetation on state-owned land in locations along Highway 13 in Oakland.
 This includes mowing, removing low-hanging limbs from trees that assist a fire to climb into the canopy, removing dead and dying trees and thinning dense tree stands. Trimming and removals were prescribed by a registered professional forester trained in forest fire fuel reduction.

As for Jeanne’s comment about Highway 13 being a pretty stretch of freeway, what do you think are some of the prettiest roads in the Bay Area?

Q: My wife and I went to Pleasant Hill BART station last Sunday and as we entered through the gate, our cards displayed low amounts. As we tried to negotiate the machine to add more money, two female BART employees came out of the small office and, with enthusiastic professionalism, led us through adding money to our BART cards. It was refreshingly different from previous interactions with the BART caged employees. Thank you, ladies. Made my day.

Frank Cunningham, Concord

A: Courtesy and service like this can help bring riders back to BART.

Q: I wholeheartedly agree with your readers who believe we need more law enforcement to curtail bad driving. But do away with driving tests? I don’t agree with that. Years ago my mother-in-law, who had multiple sclerosis and whose legs could not operate the foot pedals, wanted to renew her expired driver’s license so she could drive her van that was equipped with hand controls. While taking the DMV driver’s test, she blew through the first two stop signs she encountered. At the third stop sign, she did a bit better, but stopped the van in the middle of the intersection. The DMV tester told her, “I know you can do this, so I’m going to let you pass the test.” I think driver testing is needed for some people with unique, concerning issues (excessive tickets/accidents, physical limitations, etc.) AND more enforcement is needed.

Charlie Wilson, San Jose

A: And that’s today’s last word.

Look for Gary Richards at facebook.com/mr.roadshow or contact him at mrroadshow@bayareanewsgroup.com.