San Jose Mercury News, Calif., Gary Richards column: Roadshow: Cost bars extending Hwy. 101 carpool lane past Redwood City.

Byline: Gary Richards

Jul. 17--Q I've looked everywhere on the Web for the reason why the carpool lane on Highway 101 begins and ends in Redwood City. Yet 101 actually gets wider north of Woodside Road. Please tell me it's not the power of Larry Ellison and his Oraclites. Whom do I bug to extend the carpool lane to the city that Herb Caen used to call Baghdad by the Bay? Ken Markey

A Bugging won't help. Both San Mateo County and regional transportation officials did a study on this and concluded that conversion of the fast lane into a carpool lane would create unacceptable levels of congestion, which is why Caltrans will not convert an existing lane into a carpool …