Crossroads Modeling Our Local Traffic Infrastructure
While I was at work on Wednesday at Crossroads, we had a mini-disaster. For those of you familiar with our fine campus dining facility, when you finish eating at Crossroads, you stroll over towards the exit with your tray, and slip it onto a moving tray return conveyor belt apparatus. This contraption takes your tray back into the dishwashing area where underpaid and underappreciated employees proceed to clean all the dirty dishes so they can be used again.

Things went horribly wrong on Wednesday, when this tray return conveyor belt stopped moving. With hundreds of people dining at Crossroads at any one time, this conveyor quickly filled up with used dishware and trays and people began leaving their trays and other trash on the ground near the exit. Soon there were swarms of people milling about dumping their old food and dirty utensils in a larger and larger area. After about 45 minutes the repairmen were able to remove the fork that was jammed into the conveyor belt and get the contraption moving again. After a quick effort at clean up, everything was back to normal.

My work anecdote offers some cause for concern when contrasted with a report out recently about what would happen if BART became temporarily unusable:

A study by a UC Berkeley researcher revealed Thursday that if BART suffered major damage during an earthquake and had to be shut down it would trigger chaos on local roadways with 25-mile backups and common everyday commutes that would grow from less than an hour to more than three hours.
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Other results from the study indicate that without the transbay service, westbound morning Bay Bridge traffic would create backups stretching 26 miles. In the afternoon, eastbound Bay Bridge traffic would stretch 31 miles.

The risk of a major earthquake in this area with the many faults running nearby is a major concern. As my Crossroads experience makes clear, something as innocuous as a misplaced fork caused a major mechanical malfunction, and the BART system also could be rendered inoperable from any number of things besides an earthquake. Beyond hoping that BART doesn't ever get closed for any extended period of time, the people who commissioned this study should be looking into ways to alleviate the traffic concerns they noted.Email This Post!