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Traffic on Alma Street in south Palo Alto was diverted Thursday afternoon while city Utilities Department crews repaired a gas leak, police reported.

Traffic was diverted through the Greenmeadow neighborhood, surprising residents of the normally quiet streets.

Fire engines were on stand by in case of any problems.

— Palo Alto Weekly staff

— Palo Alto Weekly staff

— Palo Alto Weekly staff

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6 Comments

  1. Gas leaks should be communicated to the DoT, for tracking. Be interesting to see if the PAU actually makes that report. Given that the PAU is under scrutiny by the DoT at the moment for various aspect of its management of our gas distribution system, maybe the DoT should look at the gas leaks that has happened in the past few months too.

  2. Maybe this should have been a time for local neighborhoods to have been alerted by CANS. The local residents would not have been surprised by the traffic and many could have found alternative routes if they had had some warning. Alma is an important commute route and I imagine that this caused a great delay for many. If even the local traffic had been forewarned, it may have made things easier.

  3. Yeah. WHenever ther eis a traffic hold up I want to be notified! This damn thing made us late for LIttle Gym class! I wish people running this city would think about us for a change. I NEED someone to hold my hand EVERY day and tell me what route to take. 😉

  4. Calling everyone to report a traffic issue is excessive.

    It would be nice for the city to have a Twitter or RSS feed for these kind of minor announcements, though.

    Relying on the news media reports doesn’t work so well.

  5. Radio and tv stations give traffic reports and traffic dot com is also useful for freeways and expressways, but local road closures can be just as frustrating.

    CANS was used a couple of times when it was first installed and hasn’t been used for a long time. We have this expensive system installed and perhaps its use has never been well defined. If my street was about to be used as a detour because of a gas leak on an arterial thoroughfare, I think I would like to know before I started seeing a steady flow of upset drivers heading past my house.

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