A Letter of Concern-Dear Caltrans

Dear Caltrans,

The other day I was traveling down the freeway and noticed that my exit was closed without any warning.  There were no detour signs warning me to exit early. There were no notices that my "Exit would be closing on this date, from this time to this time", nothing.

(Something like this might have been nice.) Photo Credit

Normally this would not be such a big deal, however, my exit is the last exit on that particular freeway.

Do you know what that means?

That means that If my exit is closed, I am forced to transition onto a whole other freeway, and in order to get back on my route, I will have to drive several miles out of the way.

Normally even this would not be such a terrible inconvenience, or at least it would be one that I could live with.  However I am pregnant right now, and what if I needed to go to the bathroom?



Did you think of that when you decided to not put up detour signs before my exit?  Because if you had put them up, then maybe I could have seen the detour signs, and gotten off the freeway a little early, made a u-turn, and made it home in time before my little miracle kicked me in the bladder and soiled my entire car interior!

Did you think of that?  I didn't think so.

Did you know that there is a hospital right off the freeway at my exit?  Did you think for one second that maybe I could have been a stab wound victim, just trying to make it to the Hospital, before I lost so much blood that I fainted at the wheel, sending my car careening into the walls of the freeway interchange, and possibly injuring hundreds of people, and damaging all of your fine cement work?

Did you want to rebuild the cement walls of that freeway interchange this weekend? I didn't think so.

And heaven forbid I went into labor while I was out that day.

I can not even imagine the maternal anger that would have ensued if I could not get to the hospital in time, because someone thoughtlessly forgot to tell me to get off the freeway early, and I had to write 5 FREEWAY SHOULDER on my child's birth certificate application under PLACE OF BIRTH.

Did you think of that?

Well I suggest that you think of that the next time you want to cut corners during your work day. Because Hell hath no fury like a mother who didn't get to stick to her Birth Plan.

Thank you for your time,

A Concerned Citizen