This simulation is posted on a website opposing I-5 expansion.
The freeway traffic in this area (which has seen marked improvement over the last few months since the last project was completed) deters some people from thinking about living further north.
Could a new interchange help real estate values in Encinitas/Carlsbad?
Find more videos like this on Smart Freeway Planning
My father helped build the recently completed 5/805 project. Don’t be fooled. While the project HAS helped, the really big unmentioned factor is the mass exodus of immigrants/transplants (both legal and illegal) out of SD. Also, the unemployed don’t drive.
At the most, the 5/805 project simply allowed the CV folks a way to get home. CV population growth and the 5/805 project was just a break even solution.
Traffic is bad in NC, very bad. Buy in Carmel Valley.
At the most, the 5/805 project simply allowed the CV folks a way to get home. CV population growth and the 5/805 project was just a break even solution.
Which means without it traffic would be worse. The 56 interchange also allows easier access to the areas directly east of CV and prevents those people from clogging up the 805/5 interchange even more.
I live off Via de la Valle, and wouldn’t want to live much farther north. Traffic slow to a crawl right after Del Mar Heights Rd. heading north in the afternoon.
Via de la Valle isn’t that bad because it has that long exit-only lane (except for the idiots who merge in there and then figure out it is exit only and block traffic trying to get back in–I mostly swerve around those guys on the right.)
I would prefer to live off Del Mar Heights, though.
-Erica
Also–did your comments text get really small, or is it just me?
I think it’s you, they look OK to me.
text is small today Jim….
love the site!
It’s not just her. All the comments on this post are smaller (using Chrome browser). Odd.
The comments text looks much smaller to me too.
Jim,
You’ve got an unclosed ” tag in your post. Just add a hidden ‘ at the end (without the space) and it’ll fix it.
I checked your source to confirm this.
Chuck
dang. The tag got taken out. use a close small tag.
Chuck
Testing to see if the small close works.
Chuck
Can I say here how much your blogging software needs work? WordPress is so much easier…
I added something – did that do it?
I’m on wordpress. Do you mean the customized part?
RE: “Traffic slow to a crawl right after Del Mar Heights Rd. heading north in the afternoon. ”
Yes, but then doesn’t it usually clear up once you get through the Del Mar bottle neck?
“The freeway traffic in this area . . . deters some people from thinking about living further north.”
Absolutely true. But there’s already an interchange if you’re traveling north on 5. Would the southbound interchange make a difference to people other than those living in CV? (It would be great for CV residents.) Also, isn’t the construction of the future Pacific Highlands Ranch shopping center contingent on this interchange being built?
I prefer to live closer to work and eliminate the 5 from my life on a daily basis.
It’s not just the commute … it’s the concentration of restaurants, ethnic businesses, cultural activities, etc. south of the 56 that draws people southward. (Well that and all the people in La Jolla who think Encinitas and Carlsbad are slums.)
Another major freeway project will just disrupt traffic and reinforce the image of North County as suburban wasteland.
“(Well that and all the people in La Jolla who think Encinitas and Carlsbad are slums.)”
Not quite slums. Just ‘Baja San Diego’.
re: “it’s the concentration of restaurants, ethnic businesses, cultural activities, etc. south of the 56 that draws people southward.”
There may be more to do “down south”, but the quality of the schools and safe neighborhoods is what’s drawing me northward.
Jim and the UT are thinking similarly today:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/feb/09/worst-rush-hour-spot-in-county-goes-to/
Apparently the traffic through Del Mar isn’t as bad as some think.
Thanks for linking that Blur – it’s nice to know it’s not my imagination that the stretch between Mira Mesa Blvd and 52 on 805 south SUCKS in the evening rush hour. (#3 on the list.)
I prefer to live and work south of the merge – even with my short stretch on 805 – I still get home in less than 20 minutes. Friends who live the same distance north of work take double that to get home.
Thanks for linking that Blur – it’s nice to know it’s not my imagination that the stretch between Mira Mesa Blvd and 52 on 805 south SUCKS in the evening rush hour. (#3 on the list.)
I work close to the Mira Mesa Blvd/805 interchange and used to live in Clairemont. On some days I had a 45 minute commute down the 805. It wasn’t just the freeway, it could take a long time just to get on the freeway there. It’s a 10 minute drive without traffic. It’s the sole reason why I moved my worked hours to 7 to 4.
You guys in Caliphornia are so lucky. No trucks on your expressways. Everything is perfect there.
I wonder how many of the people supporting P.L.A.G.U.E. will drive to the meeting on the 31st. And how many utilize mass transportation or bike to work on a daily basis. If you’re not part of the solution…
make the text bigger, do not you know I am blind 🙂
I was hoping to drive more people to CV with my previous comment 😀 The more people in CV means less six/eight lane roads in 92024. It’s too late for some areas in 92009.
92024 to Sorrento Valley (Qualcomm):
15 min at 7am
19 min at 8am
21 – 22 min at 9am
Sorrento Valley to 92024
21 min at 4:30 pm
30 min at 5pm
Hwy 5/Via del Valle to Trader Joe’s 92024 is only 11 min in RUSH HOUR!
I won’t give away my secrets. But no secrets would have helped today’s commute home.
I know traveling as tourist a few years back, the stretch of I-5 northbound at the pinch point-I think right by Camp Pendleton was terrible. So bad that the next time we were in the area a couple of years later, I tried the I-15 to the 91. Nice and fast in the newer section, but when you get downhill after the 215 split, it gets a little warm in a car without A/C!
I won’t give away my secrets. But no secrets would have helped today’s commute home.
Took my wife about 2 hours, on a typically 20 minute commute. The problem was an accident at the 163/15 northbound interchange blocking a couple of lanes of traffic. This started to block up mission valley, and everyone who gets on the 163. Then people have to start taking other routes home, increasing traffic on those. Just one giant chain reaction.
I-5 really needs to be widened, just like I-15 was from Miramar to Escondido. The improvement has been almost miraculous on the 15. And the extra ramps from 56 to 5 need to be built also, and traffic flow would be improved immensely. Then 56 will have to expand from 4 lanes to 8 lanes all the way to I-15.
If we didn’t waste all of those billions on mass transit which is not cost-effective, CalTrans could git-r-dun.
Nah, I think Hwy 5 is perfect in N. County. It starts slowly with the widening of the freeways/highways and then the neighborhood streets get more crowded and need to be widened. Then everybody drives like they do in Carmel Valley on them there wide streets.
R.C., no thanks. 3-clicks is closer to the right solution. Wide highways end up… full. Better to keep them choked a little and prevent outward expansion that then just re-clogs the lanes. I have lived near Hwy 101 in Marin for 11 years. CalTrans has continually widened and streamlined. Each “improvement” worked for awhile, but then more people moved farther north which jammed up the highway again. So people like me had a packed highway so they could live farther out in a cheaper area. No, that’s always a bad solution. Narrow the highways by taking more lanes for HOV only.
Plus, anyone who lived in SD in the ’80s knows that it is a much worse place for all the development. The eastward sea of rooftops + the wide noisy eyesore highways have been bad for the area. It’s nearly ruined already.