Empty booths not an invitation to speed through Bay Area bridge toll plazas: Roadshow

Q: I’ve had a question since starting to commute across the Bay Bridge regularly. With tolls collected electronically now, do people still need to slow down as they pass now-unmanned booths? Signs are contradictory. Everyone seems to slow down to about 30 mph and immediately accelerate back up to speed.

Rebecca Jolitz, Pacifica

A: Yes, slow down to the posted speed of 25 mph.

Q: Regarding Gerald of Concord’s comments on the left lane of Ygnacio Valley Road in Walnut Creek being the slow lane, I drive this road regularly and cannot see how the left lane could be considered to be a passing or speeding lane. I get into the left lane when, in the next 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile, I plan to turn left. I get in the right lane when I am going to be turning right. This avoids having to cut into the turning lane at the last minute, creating what might be an unsafe situation with other cars in that lane. As there is almost always some congestion on that road, this seems to be the most polite and safest way to go.

Rick Waggener Walnut Creek

A: It sounds like a good plan.

Q: Caltrans recently posted messages on its overhead highway signs reminding drivers to make a 4-way stop at an intersection if the power is out. That’s not exactly something regularly encountered on the highway. Why not post a reminder about one of the biggest scourges of highway driving, like, “Don’t be a road boulder. Slower traffic move right.” That just might get the commute moving.

Dave Zenker, San Jose

A: It might, yes. The message you saw about treating an intersection without lights as a 4-way stop may have been to prepare drivers for what they could encounter after leaving the freeway. Intersections without lights were a big problem in some areas during rainy days this winter.