Road rage closure

A series of violent incidents on workers widening Highway 138 have prompted a full closure of the road near Highway 2 that begins Monday. The Times' Hector Becerra and Tony Barboza report that the road rage speaks to a larger issue of a rural road being used by commuters from far-flung suburbs:

Motorists angry at construction delays threatened road workers and damaged equipment. Also, flagmen have been attacked in what officials describe as bizarre incidents of road rage. Two workers were hit by cars and a third was shot with a BB gun. Now in an unprecedented response to ill will, Caltrans has announced it will close a portion of the highway beginning Monday to complete the project. California 138 connects two of Southern California's fastest-growing areas — the Antelope Valley communities of Palmdale and Lancaster and the Inland Empire's high desert region. But the rural highway has become a major commuter route, and that has caused problems. "This is growing pains," said Dennis Green, a Caltrans consultant on the $44-million widening project. "People here are not used to having congestion like they had in Los Angeles. It's here now, and they're having to learn how to cope with it."

Comments

[Gregory Solman]

Obviously, this is misplaced anger, but CalTrans is to blame for the frustration. Once I was returning from my office late at night, traveling east on the 210, and as soon as I exited onto the 215N I got stuck in a construction delay that mired me in bumper to bumper traffic for more than two hours. I was hungry, I needed to use the bathroom, I was practically falling asleep in the car; only my outrage was keeping me awake. No one seems to consider that it is very dangerous for motorists to be stuck in traffic that much longer than they'd planned. Here's the part that really angered me. When I finally got home, I wrote CalTrans and asked why there couldn't be a simple sign on the 210 warning of the construction delay; I could have taken an alternate route and lost, maybe, ten minutes, tops. They wrote back and said they could not put a sign there because of "jurisdictional" reasons. Is there any wonder why people are mad at CalTrans?

[G. Solman]

Obviously, this is misplaced anger, but CalTrans is to blame for the frustration. Once I was returning from my office very late at night, traveling east on the 210, and as soon as I got onto the 215N I got stuck in a construction delay that mired me in bumper to bumper traffic for more than two hours. The car started to overheat; I was hungry and practically falling asleep in the car; only my outrage was keeping me awake. No one seems to consider that it is very dangerous for motorists to be stuck in traffic that much longer than they've planned. Here's the part that really angered me. When I finally got home, I wrote CalTrans and asked why there couldn't be a simple sign on the 210 warning of the construction delay on the 215, since one exits directly on it; had I known, I could have taken an alternate route and lost, maybe, ten minutes. They wrote back and said they could not put a sign there because of "jurisdictional" reasons. Do you wonder why people are mad at CalTrans?