After CA 17 my route took me up to CA 237 at the beginning of the Southbay Freeway:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskBdxEkB
I didn't take the entire Southbay to the western terminus but rather US 101. Really 237 from what I saw is strained pretty badly with traffic jams and could use two additional lanes to US 101. The express lanes seemed more hinder traffic more than help it out. I hoping to attempt CA 109 and CA 114 but spending 30 plus minutes of 237 jammed me up.
237 is an absolute bear during the morning and evening commute. Traffic moves pretty well during the mid-day and the weekends.
One of the big complaints about the express lanes centered around the westbound lane and the inability of HOV vehicles coming from Calaveras Blvd (or northbound I-880 as in your case) to access the express lane until after Zanker Road. Originally, the double-white lines extended beyond the First Street exit but was cut back to it's current location because express lane users wanted access to First Street and carpoolers from Calaveras Blvd wanted earlier access to the express/HOV lane.
The VTA's long-term plan is to extend the express lane all the way to US 101.
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 30, 2018, 12:17:59 AM
After CA 17 my route took me up to CA 237 at the beginning of the Southbay Freeway:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskBdxEkB
I didn't take the entire Southbay to the western terminus but rather US 101. Really 237 from what I saw is strained pretty badly with traffic jams and could use two additional lanes to US 101. The express lanes seemed more hinder traffic more than help it out. I hoping to attempt CA 109 and CA 114 but spending 30 plus minutes of 237 jammed me up.
Not much to CA 109 except for a couple of mileposts at its northern end at CA 84. CA 114 had stand-alone trailblazer signage from US 101 for a couple of years in the late '90's, but like its 109 counterpart to the SE, now is identified by only mileposts -- and damn few of those; most of the previous white paddles have been usurped by commercial/industrial development along Willow Road. Except for the clinch, you didn't miss much!
Quote from: sparker on January 30, 2018, 10:25:46 PM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 30, 2018, 12:17:59 AM
After CA 17 my route took me up to CA 237 at the beginning of the Southbay Freeway:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskBdxEkB
I didn't take the entire Southbay to the western terminus but rather US 101. Really 237 from what I saw is strained pretty badly with traffic jams and could use two additional lanes to US 101. The express lanes seemed more hinder traffic more than help it out. I hoping to attempt CA 109 and CA 114 but spending 30 plus minutes of 237 jammed me up.
Not much to CA 109 except for a couple of mileposts at its northern end at CA 84. CA 114 had stand-alone trailblazer signage from US 101 for a couple of years in the late '90's, but like its 109 counterpart to the SE, now is identified by only mileposts -- and damn few of those; most of the previous white paddles have been usurped by commercial/industrial development along Willow Road. Except for the clinch, you didn't miss much!
It was really just for the sake of route clinching. I was over in Mountain View that morning for a work thing but I didn't think that I could make it over to Palo Alto and back in time with how bad traffic was. I'll probably give it another try when I get around to trying out 92.
Quote from: sparker on January 30, 2018, 10:25:46 PM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 30, 2018, 12:17:59 AM
After CA 17 my route took me up to CA 237 at the beginning of the Southbay Freeway:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskBdxEkB
I didn't take the entire Southbay to the western terminus but rather US 101. Really 237 from what I saw is strained pretty badly with traffic jams and could use two additional lanes to US 101. The express lanes seemed more hinder traffic more than help it out. I hoping to attempt CA 109 and CA 114 but spending 30 plus minutes of 237 jammed me up.
Not much to CA 109 except for a couple of mileposts at its northern end at CA 84. CA 114 had stand-alone trailblazer signage from US 101 for a couple of years in the late '90's, but like its 109 counterpart to the SE, now is identified by only mileposts -- and damn few of those; most of the previous white paddles have been usurped by commercial/industrial development along Willow Road. Except for the clinch, you didn't miss much!
There were a couple of Route 114 shields on US 101 near the Willow Road exit the past couple of years, I think they might still be there.
Quote from: TheStranger on January 31, 2018, 03:52:34 AM
Quote from: sparker on January 30, 2018, 10:25:46 PM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 30, 2018, 12:17:59 AM
After CA 17 my route took me up to CA 237 at the beginning of the Southbay Freeway:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskBdxEkB
I didn't take the entire Southbay to the western terminus but rather US 101. Really 237 from what I saw is strained pretty badly with traffic jams and could use two additional lanes to US 101. The express lanes seemed more hinder traffic more than help it out. I hoping to attempt CA 109 and CA 114 but spending 30 plus minutes of 237 jammed me up.
Not much to CA 109 except for a couple of mileposts at its northern end at CA 84. CA 114 had stand-alone trailblazer signage from US 101 for a couple of years in the late '90's, but like its 109 counterpart to the SE, now is identified by only mileposts -- and damn few of those; most of the previous white paddles have been usurped by commercial/industrial development along Willow Road. Except for the clinch, you didn't miss much!
There were a couple of Route 114 shields on US 101 near the Willow Road exit the past couple of years, I think they might still be there.
CAhighways had a picture of the CA 114 shield but I didn't see it running the GSV along the route. 109 didn't appear to have much of anything.
Incidentally finished the blog post about CA 237 on Sure Why Not:
http://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/2018/01/california-state-route-237-southbay.html
I'm pretty sure you're not going to find any route 109 shields and the route 114 shields, if I recall correctly, we're only used on some temporary construction signs and should be long gone since Caltrans is in the process of completely rebuilding the 101/Willow Rd interchange.
Regarding the blog post, here are some additional nuggets of information...
* I have never heard of 237 being referred to as the Alviso-Milpitas Road but I guess it's plausible since the western part was called the Mtn View-Alviso Road. In fact, the exit sign from north 101 to west 237 still uses that road name (https://goo.gl/maps/xgAZa43e7zH2).
* During the morning commute, the majority of the delays are at the 237/880 interchange where the 2 lanes from CA-237/Calaveras Blvd (and northbound I-880) merge with the 2 lanes from southbound I-880 all have to merge into 2 lanes to continue west towards Mountain View. Oddly enough, the conversion of the HOV lane to an Express Lane exacerbated the congestion because HOVs entering from Calaveras were no longer permitted to merge into the Express Lane (old HOV lane) until after passing Zanker Road. Current plans call for extending the Express Lane all the way to US 101 at which point, it'll probably become an "open-access" Express Lane like the ones on I-580 through Livermore.
* The conversion of 237 to a full freeway was made passible because of a landmark ballot measure passed in Santa Clara County back in 1984 that imposed a 10 year 1/2-cent sales tax to pay for the construction of CA-85, widening of US 101 and the upgrade of CA-237.
That's all I have for now. If I think of anything additional, I'll modify this post.
Quote from: myosh_tino on January 31, 2018, 09:04:42 PM
I'm pretty sure you're not going to find any route 109 shields and the route 114 shields, if I recall correctly, we're only used on some temporary construction signs and should be long gone since Caltrans is in the process of completely rebuilding the 101/Willow Rd interchange.
Apparently the 114 shield was there as of 2015:
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cahighways.org%2Fmaps%2F114-bayshore.jpg&hash=fcfc5bc8dc7d790dd042c128c68b4cfe60522ad2)
Weren't there a ton of orange spade shields that were up around the Bay Area recently? I picked up one of the orange CA 130 shields, it never had a hole punched in the vinyl. I would assume that there is a chance that an oddball 109 or 114 shield could have been produced that way.
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 31, 2018, 09:17:18 PM
Quote from: myosh_tino on January 31, 2018, 09:04:42 PM
I'm pretty sure you're not going to find any route 109 shields and the route 114 shields, if I recall correctly, we're only used on some temporary construction signs and should be long gone since Caltrans is in the process of completely rebuilding the 101/Willow Rd interchange.
Apparently the 114 shield was there as of 2015:
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cahighways.org%2Fmaps%2F114-bayshore.jpg&hash=fcfc5bc8dc7d790dd042c128c68b4cfe60522ad2)
Yeah, that shield should be long gone. Like I said earlier, Caltrans is currently doing a total rebuild of the Willow Road interchange which includes realignment of the ramps (replacing the full cloverleaf with a parclo) and replacing the overpass. More info on the project can be found at http://www.dot.ca.gov/d4/101willowinterchange/.
If you look at the current street view image(s), you'll see a very different sight...
US 101 South @ Willow Road... https://goo.gl/maps/Mjcxks7H9uT2
US 101 North @ Willow Road... https://goo.gl/maps/KssAFrtUMj32
Incidentally that's a pretty neat design for 114/Willow. I really wish that Caltrans had gotten around to putting ramps in like that when I was working on the 60 corridor. Too bad about the lack of shields, on the plus side I'll probably be in the area with enough frequency that it will be somewhat easy to just go over and clinch.