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How Safe Is Vasco Rd.?

T

tempest411

New member
Joined
Jun 30, 2009
Location
San Jose, CA
Moto(s)
'87 Honda VFR700, '95 Ducati 900SS
Hello,

I just bought a home in Discovery Bay and will be commuting up and down this road at 6AM (going south) and 7PM (headed back north) each day. How bad is this road on a bike?

It will be a while before I can actually move there, so I haven't had the opportunity to check it out at these specific times...

Thank you,

Rick
 
There are three roads I've experienced around here that totally creeped me out, made the Spidey sense tingle like crazy. Just feel....wrong.

Vasco is one, that road didn't make me happy at all. Brentwood had 6,000 people 20 years ago. Now it has over 50,000 people, and so many use Vasco at rush hour.

Other two are Hwy 12 through Rio Vista, and I-580 thru the Hwy 238 connector to 880.
 
It's MUCH better now than it was a few years ago. It's still not ideal but slowly getting better
 
I'm with Zerox here. Road is nutso. People commute the road crazy and drive fucking nutso on it. It's just one of those roads where people just lose their minds and drive crazier than shit. I would avoid it.

There are usually a couple of fatalities on it each year as well. That should be a good deterrent. I'd cage it or avoid at all cost. Not sure what your other options are. Have a co-worker who commutes from Brentwood to Livermore, I know he has talked about alternate routes. I'll ask him next chance I get.
 
if you're going out that way just take altamont pass road. its a little longer but it is so much more fun to ride!

but if you're not stupid on vasco it shouldnt be a problem. ive commuted that road for the last 3 years, just be careful if youre going to split near the merge zones. just like any other road.
 
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Vasco sucks.

Take Byron Highway to Mt. House Road to Grant Line to Old Altamont Pass Rd.

Slightly longer mileage wise, just as quick.
 
Zerox said:
There are three roads I've experienced around here that totally creeped me out, made the Spidey sense tingle like crazy. Just feel....wrong.

Vasco is one, that road didn't make me happy at all. Brentwood had 6,000 people 20 years ago. Now it has over 50,000 people, and so many use Vasco at rush hour.

Other two are Hwy 12 through Rio Vista, and I-580 thru the Hwy 238 connector to 880.
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Your senses are correct. These are (or were) terrible roads back when I was doing insurance stuff.
 
Thank you for the feedback. I'd heard this road was bad, but so far driving up and down it while house hunting I hadn't really seen it. But ten trips does not make me an expert of course, especially when I haven't gone down it during the worst of the rush hours. I haven't really ridden as much as I'd have like to in the last five years as my commute's been between San Jose and Livermore, which between the hazards (mostly exploded retreads off 18 wheelers, plus other things that tend to fall off gardener's rigs)and lack of general appeal of the route has kept me in a car.

Rick
 
Other than windy as hell, what's bad about Vasco Rd? I've only been on it on the weekend with light traffic.
 
They fall within the peak commute. It's a nasty road, my advice is to stay off of it.
 
}Dragon{ said:
Try commuting on it. :|
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:rofl No shit!

I don't live there but from March 15 till June 15 this past spring, I stayed with a friend in San Ramon and we commuted 680/580/Vasco to Byron every single morning and evening, 7 days a week, with no days off, to Holland Tract east of Oakley. I was working from a boat all over the Delta doing a Salmon Migration Study. The good thing was we were always going in the opposite direction of the commute traffic. The direction you are going will probably drive you bat-shit stupid. Me...I'd kill myself if I had to deal with that shit but that's why I'll never live in the big city again. In the morning, back-ups for miles from near the 580, way back up passed the landfill and many times over that hill. At the end of the day, back-ups from Camino Diablo extending way back to the south.

I'd see the same bikes every day. Several BMW guys that were mellow, and then the sprotbile guys that were splittin' on Vasco any chance they get. Nuckin' Futz to be doing that because that road has some of the most stupid fucking driver I have ever seen in my 50 years. On numerous occasion, and for no reason, people heading south would just cross the DY line into our lane. :wtf We saw lots of fender benders and that road is littered with car parts from accidents.

Come Memorial Day, and from that point through summer, then you contend with the WeWA's, as we called them (Weekend Wakeboard Assholes). Absolute worse timing there is in the evening after they have been on the water and in the sun, drinking ALL DAY! Ohhhh yeah....it's a doozy of a road! :party :laughing

Also, be VERY careful and cautious on the Byron Highway. Some of my work took me to the Dept. of Water Resources right off the highway, right where the Calif Aqueduct starts at the Clifton Court Forebay. LOTS of memorial plaques, flowers, Crosses where people have died along that stretch. The traffic hauls ass and the idiots STILL want to pass on the most dangerous spots. Insane!
 
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tempest411 said:
Hello,

I just bought a home in Discovery Bay and will be commuting up and down this road at 6AM (going south) and 7PM (headed back north) each day. How bad is this road on a bike?

It will be a while before I can actually move there, so I haven't had the opportunity to check it out at these specific times...

Thank you,

Rick
Click to expand...

deadly. absolute hell. stay off at all costs. the windmills are cool, thats about it.
 
Huh. Interesting posts. I've been commuting from Livermore to Brentwood for almost 11 years now. Many years ago, before all the road modifications, there were the occasional hairy moments... but in eleven years of commuting out there, I've had people end up in my lane twice. Once last year, near Camino Diablo, once about 8 years ago.
With the road reconstruction/relocation, and the rumble strips, and the plastic "posts" they put up, it's been a long time since we had a head-on. There's still the occasional accident- like any other heavily traveled road is going to have- but it's not the "Blood Alley" it was years ago.
I'm on Vasco from about 6:30am to just before 7am. Traffic heading into Livermore will stack up in the morning from the downhill descent (with the k-rails) just past the reservoir turnoff to the freeway (which is a parking lot heading west). Before the reservoir, it's easily doing 60mph. In the afternoon, though, it's a little worse. It seems to be averaging around 40mph, with occasional areas where it picks up, from Camino Diablo all the way back to Livermore.
It does get windy, but the only spot where it's really an issue (and it will move your ass across the lane!) is south of Camino Diablo, where 3 hills close right in on the road... there's two hills, a gap, and then another hill. That gap plays hell with the winds.
Since you'll be moving fairly slow due to traffic through there, though, it probably won't be an issue.
I was doing about 75 when I got the gust that blew me across the lane.

Personally, I actually enjoy the drive. It's stunningly beautiful in the Spring:

Vasco2_zps83b329c7.jpg


And the drive in is nice, too:

Vasco1_zps8d7fe2f5.jpg


Zerox said:
There are three roads I've experienced around here that totally creeped me out, made the Spidey sense tingle like crazy. Just feel....wrong.

Vasco is one, that road didn't make me happy at all. Brentwood had 6,000 people 20 years ago. Now it has over 50,000 people, and so many use Vasco at rush hour.

Other two are Hwy 12 through Rio Vista, and I-580 thru the Hwy 238 connector to 880.
Click to expand...

There's been a couple of motorcycle fatalities on Vasco in the last 11 years, towards the Livermore end... and more than that on that connector between 580/880.
 
The wind is horrible at nightfall... I'd keep off of it if at all possible.
 
Thateguhate said:
The wind is horrible at nightfall... I'd keep off of it if at all possible.
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Daylight Savings Time is coming soon, so the thousands of commuters on the windy twisty Vasco will be driving in the dark, skurry!
 
I agree with Connie, it's no where near what it was! The only thing to that bugs me is the wind other then that if you ride on the defense you will be fine!
 
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