San Jose Mercury,

\

cials sLaarnpo d with culls
seeking od,d,-ev)en, exempfi,ons
a

By Scott

Herhold

r

Staff Writer

Veneda Gonzales has'a Probcoordinalem. As the Program
-Jose's "Meals
on
tor for San
Wheels" Program, whtfh-brings
hot luncfres to the elderlY, she
ttie*s gasoline lines with dismay.
Because her drivers are often delaYed for an hour or
-o"" wailing in line with their

,
:i,
:.
'

men have alreadY given notice'
So Ms. Gonzales has joined a

host of others who are Pushing
status under the
io"
"-"tg.ncY
gai
allocation Plan
oaa-eventhat went into effect todaY in
.-*

Santa Clara CountY.

The regulations announced

bv Gov. =Edmund G' Brown
ji.'s
office have PromPted
hundreds of requests

foi

exceP-

tions from motorists wbo claim
iil"f .". sick, needY, oi simPlY
befuddled.

The Gas Crunch

A woman PsYchologist asked'
Supervisor GelrY Steinberg's
office whether she could use
the emergeneY lanes, Pointing
out that she was sometimes
called awaY from her.office on

"We're getting just tons of
calls," .said- Frank Escobar, the
head of the countY's Office of emergencies.
Citizen Services. "A lot of them
Another woman called
are coming from heads of busito
nesses who want to make sure nervisor Dan McCorquodale
would
son
her
that
turned
lomolain
aren't
salesmen
their
have trouble visiting his dYing
dowtl."
father because he had to fill his
. The odd-even Plan, under
car on an oddwhich motorists maY buY gas Lven-numbered
daY
numbered
every other daY, allows exceP
tions for recognized "emergencv vehicles," Iike ambulances,
iri special "Yellow flag" lanes'
The regulations also Provide
that commercial vehicles maY
buv gas every daY Provided
th;ir-drivers wait in line like mercial vehicleeveryone else.
But even on the other side of
But the Plan doesn't. sPecifi- the
DumD. the situation isn't
callv address the Plight of the cteai.
suPervisors TuesdaY
moie than 150 residents who heard ttr-e
aPP-eal from a Mounan
Tuescalled their suPervisors
View- bar wash owner'
day to plead sPecial circum- tain
Woodward, who said the
Raloh
in
stdnces-or suggest changeb
of
"gasoline onlY" motorline's
ruleb.
ists were hurting his business'
A San Jose man ealled SuDom Cortese to comoervisor
'ol"in ttrat he had to travel to
tne nospital every daY for kidnev dialvsis. There was no way
he'could depend on the vagaries of odd-even.

*

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