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TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

August 2001
Project CLEAR Targets Region's Worst Freeway

Traffic on I-80 Help has arrived for the region's No.1 bottleneck in the form of the CLEAR I-80 Demonstration Corridor Project, launched in July by the California Highway Patrol (CHP), Caltrans and MTC.

CLEAR stands for "clearing lanes effectively and rapidly," and that's just what the sponsors intend to do over the next year along Interstate 80 from State Route 4 to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The 16-mile stretch of freeway has topped Caltrans' list of the 10 worst Bay Area congestion spots for nine of the last 10 years. (See story).

The CHP is deploying additional Highway Patrol units, while MTC's Service Authority for Freeways and Expressways is spending over $100,000 to step up Freeway Service Patrol (FSP) tow truck service, which assists motorists in distress. The goal is to aggressively enforce carpool-lane rules and to remove stalls, accidents and debris before minor incidents turn into major jams.

The sponsors will alert travelers to trouble ahead via changeable message signs, radio advisories and the MTC-run TravInfo® project, which provides up-to-the-minute traffic information via a free phone number, 817.1717.

After the pilot project concludes in June 2002, plans call for applying the most effective traffic management techniques to other high-traffic corridors around the Bay Area.

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