Press Releases

For Immediate Release

Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) Service Authority for Freeways and Expressways (SAFE)

Cypress Freeway Gets New Motorist-Aid Call Boxes

Installation Completed

CONTACT:

Reka Goode, MTC SAFE
510.464.7706

Marjorie Blackwell, MTC SAFE
510.464.7884

OAKLAND, Calif., Jan. 27, 1999. . . Thirty bright yellow motorist-aid call boxes became operational this month along Oakland's Cypress Freeway and its transition ramp to Interstate 80, completing a project that now covers all four miles of the freeway. Installed every quarter mile, the call boxes give stranded drivers a direct connection to the California Highway Patrol (CHP).

"Motorists can be secure in the knowledge that help is only a phone call away," said Lawrence D. Dahms, executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, whose Service Authority for Freeways and Expressways (MTC SAFE) administers the call box program in the nine-county Bay Area.

The installation of the final 30 call boxes (out of a total of 50) began in November 1998 and was completed earlier this month. Denbridge Digital of San Leandro laid the foundations and erected the poles on which the call boxes were then attached (and their operation tested) by the call box manufacturer, Comarco Wireless Technologies of Irvine.

The cost for the entire Cypress project was approximately $150,000, with $90,000 of that covering the final 30-call-box installation. Financing was provided by MTC SAFE, which derives its revenues from one dollar per motor vehicle registration in each of the nine Bay Area counties. The regional network of nearly 3,500 call boxes provides a means for motorists to report accidents, car trouble or roadway hazards, free of charge.

MTC is the regional transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. MTC commissioners oversee the regional SAFE, with Caltrans and the CHP serving as partners on the project.

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