Public grateful to participate in Seventh Street non-work action

LONG BEACH—Deploying cones and dramatic orange signs—including one that warned ominously of a detour—CalTrans stalled thousands of commuters Wednesday, narrowly avoiding the need to move an agency vehicle CalTrans parked in the right lane on Seventh Street

No CalTrans workers were visible in or around the idle truck and there was no apparent construction. But the state agency had set up hundreds of traffic cones and detour signs to funnel thousands of drivers around the vehicle and into a traffic jam that stretched from PCH to the 405 along Seventh Street.

“At first, I was really upset, thinking, ‘Wow, another BS construction project that took 20 minutes of my life,’” said Jaime Gonzalez, a stranded motorist. “But when I saw that truck parked in the right lane doing absolutely nothing, I felt better, like I’d really done my part in something bigger, like not moving a truck.”

The truck was hitched to a trailer pulling a bulldozer, also doing nothing.

Cal Trans did not respond to suggestions that the inactive truck was part of the highway agency’s energy-saving initiatives.

“I would hate to think that someone would have had to move that truck,” Gonzalez told The District Weekly. “I mean, what’s 20 minutes stuck in traffic for me and thousands of other drivers compared to the inconvenience of moving a truck?”

Tags: CalTrans, congestion, traffic