Unsafe from Traffic, Even at Home

For too many road users, the dangers from speeding traffic are a common threat. However, we usually feel safe from traffic in our own homes.

But there’s one resident in San Jose who can’t even relax in his living room. In the 56 years Ray Minter has lived in his house, he says “nearly two dozen” vehicles have crashed into his yard, four of them smashing into his house.

In a Mercury News story about the latest crash, Minter blames the design of the freeway offramp that ends at his house, a long straightaway that he says offers “no incentive for people to slow down.”

He hasn’t been sitting on his hands. He’s built barriers around his yard, including a reinforced brick wall. Sadly, that wasn’t enough to prevent the most recent crash—a drunk driver smashed into the front of his house, demolishing his garage door as well as the car parked in front of it.

He says the city and county have ignored his requests to do something to slow down the traffic on the offramp, and punted the question to the state. Could Caltrans engineers still believe that slowing down traffic on an onramp is a dangerous idea?