HWY 17 between Santa Cruz and Los Gatos?

I have driven that a few hundred times, so this is funny:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/1590948273.html

I've only driven it a few times but yes, it is really funny.

The road is beautiful but the traffic is really ugly. The first I drove that road was in a fully loaded 1970 VW camper van. I can related to conserving momentum.

I am waiting for Capt. Slow to chime in. He lives up the hills near there and likely sees more than his share of stupid on a daily basis.

Yeah, that's pretty funny, and I've never driven that stretch of road. I have driven Rte. 17 from Paramus to the New York State Thruway, though. Don't know if that counts.

I lived in Northern Ca. in the late '70s/early '80s and drove that stretch a few times. When traffic was light, it was kind of fun, tho I imagine nowadays it is never light. When traffic was heavy it was a nightmare. A co-worker told me that one morning on that stretch he was passed at a high rate of speed by a car that ran up the back of another car, went airborne over the guard rail and was "lost" from view. Certainly a novel form of "hit and run"? He said folks were also "disappointed" that his X1/9, like the bus in this story, would not maintain worp speed the whole way from Santa Cruz to Los Gatos. They (my co-worker and other drivers) had a few disagreements that started to escalate into throw small but hard objects from each others sunroofs into following traffic that refused to back off.

I'll be doing this as my daily commute come March. Love the scenery, but the road is banked all wrong. Not looking forward to it, but it's still better than living in San Jose.

Thanks for the link...I'll be sure to watch out for that bus. ;)

LOL this is awesome!

I used to commute that road on a daily basis. In fact I actually used to ride the 17 express all the time. It would pick me up in a block from my old house in Santa Cruz and drop me off right in front of the engineering department at SJSU.

There is certainly no shortage of stupid drivers on that road. And the traffic patterns that develop are really interesting. As the driver was alluding to the bus is not the slowest vehicle going over the hill. Its a two lane road and the large tractor trailers that struggle to maintain 25 mph while traffic wants to move at 70.

This causes the fast lane to become congested and slow down to 26 MPH while passing a Tractor trailer. Eventually at number of people will shunt over to the the completely empty slow lane and shoot up to the rear of the tractor trailer at speed and try to merge into the fast lane at the last second, further slowing the fast lane.

Doll, the commute is interesting, enjoy. I strongly suggest learning the mountain roads around hwy 17. There are a number of "longcuts" That can save your bacon when there is an accident, or on a summer weekend when all the dammed flatlanders go to the beach and there is bumper to bumper traffic from Santa Cruz to Los Gatos

On a sunday morning the 17 isn't a bad road but a busy weekend or if someone crashes forget about it.

The funniest thing I ever saw in Santa Cruz was a hippy looking guy next to his VW TDI which had gotten busted into with a look of "where did all the peace and love go?"

Santa Cruz is the mecca of pan handling, I was hanging out in golden gate park and listened to two homeless talk about how you get there from frisco.

dollraves wrote: I'll be doing this as my daily commute come March. Love the scenery, but the road is banked all wrong. Not looking forward to it, but it's still better than living *in* San Jose. Thanks for the link...I'll be sure to watch out for that bus. ;)

You are moving to Santa Cruz? I'd thinking about riding the bus instead of dodging it. Let the craziness be someone elses headache. The only stretch of bay area highway where I dislike traffic more is 880 between Hayward and Emeryville.

dollraves wrote: but it's still better than living *in* San Jose.

I lived by that phrase for 15 years. Going late, then hitting the gym after work will generally help morale. Bear Creek road is fun just for the fun of it, as is HWY 9 for the first few miles especially. Alba road.... now there is a road... Old San Jose Road is wonderful. The Santa Cruz mountains are a big spread out suburb heavily populated with deer, cyclists, stoners in vw vans going 3mph, an all kinds of phenomena, so one needs to be sensible.

benzbaron wrote: Santa Cruz is the mecca of pan handling, I was hanging out in golden gate park and listened to two homeless talk about how you get there from frisco.

Those pan handlers must have just arrived from from LA. Or you are from LA. No one says frisco in NorCal! When I moved to Portland I discovered no one uses umbrellas, if you do, you are OBVIOUSLY from somewhere else. One of my favorite things about living in "The City" (frisco) was watching New Yorkers trying to hail SF cabs. You need to make reservations via phone or with the interwebs to get a cab in SF. Of course, New Yorkers would laugh out loud when they heard some one refer to SF as "The City".

In reply to Shaun:

They just repaved a 2.5 mile section of bear creek, right at the top where the pavement was decomposing. Its a lot of fun now.

I have to disagree with you on old San Jose Road though, although the road itself is pretty fun it seem that the people driving it don't have the tradition of pulling over for faster traffic like they do on Hwy 9 or Bear Creek.

Alba-->Empire grade --> Jamison Creek --> Hwy 9 loop is pretty fun...

Capt Slow wrote: In reply to Shaun: Alba-->Empire grade --> Jamison Creek --> Hwy 9 loop is pretty fun...

There you go!