AnonymousBy an edhat reader
I submitted a request to Caltrans on March 3, 2022 asking why the Gaviota Highway 101 rest stops on both sides have still not been reopened. I received an email stating the rest stop would be open April 2022.
It is now almost Sept 2022 and the rest stops are still closed. Several times a week I drive by and there is no activity. The same backhoe has been parked there for years. I received a call from Caltrans, she was apologetic and said there is an issue with the toilets flushing and the engineer is looking into it. I asked if there is a finish date, there is none right now.
Yep, pee on the side of the road.
My cynical side notes that the absence of these rest stops which are the only public option in about 100 of miles, is a boon for the businesses in Buellton and Goleta etc. No local politician seems willing to put some heft behind getting them working probably because of the opposition of these consumer shops. The ones who are denied the respite they should provide are not local voters in general. In the decades that I have live in SB I remember these being closed more time than open.
A rest stop is a small thing. But a rest stop that does not work for years, it is a sign of a failed government. CA leaders can’t keep the rest stops nice. You can tell a lot about how well a states leaders and how it functions by its road qualities and rest stops. CA leaders are focusing on all of the wrong things. Just get the freeways built faster than 30 years of construction so we don’t have to wait in traffic for hours, and fix the rest stops. They can start there.
Clearly, you don’t understand how freeways and traffic work. Expanding freeways only leads to more traffic.
I’d prefer to see it shut down rather than wasting countless taxpayer dollars over the decades. The state should sh-t or get off the pit on this one.
I have had a few conversations with Caltrans managers. Possibly the most shameless liars this side of Hollywood.