Monday, August 5, 2013

The Irony of It

The San Francisco/Bay Area was preparing for a BART strike to happen today.  Something like 500,000 people a day ride BART.  Extra ferries and buses were ready to help.  But nothing can handle that many extra people trying to get to work.  When they went out on strike in July, it was gridlock on all highways and surface streets even though it was a holiday week.  Driving was a total nightmare.  We were preparing for a bigger mess today because there's no holiday, therefore more people would be on the roads.

Last night Governor Brown called for a 7 day inquiry into the contract negotiations, and the unions can not strike during this period.  Huge sigh of relief, people will have a normal commute.  No gridlock, trains and  ferries running, traffic normal  all is right with the world.  Sounds good doesn't it?

This morning around 6:30 a big rig caught fire on the Bay Bridge, the main bridge between the East Bay and San Francisco.  Two lanes are blocked and the others are intermittently closed.  Every highway you can think of 80, 880, 24, 580 are jammed up for miles.  It will be into the afternoon commute before the big rig is pulled off the bridge, the road cleaned, and Cal Trans says the road is safe to use.

The irony of all this . . .  people are being told to use BART and not to drive.  Don't you love it?

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