For millions of Bay Area motorists, there are few things more aggravating than the stew of gridlock, rude and distracted drivers, mistimed signals and potholes they’re forced to navigate as they go about their lives.
But for more than three decades, they found a tireless advocate at the Mercury News and Bay Area News Group who’d hear their gripes, answer their questions and bring their frustrations to the attention of the transportation officials who could do something about them.
Gary Richards, better known as Mr. Roadshow, died Sunday after a long battle with a degenerative muscle and nerve disease. He was 72.
His special connection to Roadshow readers kept him writing, with the help of his beloved wife, Jan, who would become known as Mrs. Roadshow. Perhaps fittingly, his final column appeared on the day that he died.
“Gary Richards was a treasure in our community and in our newsroom,” said Sarah Dussault, senior editor of the Bay Area News Group, which includes the Mercury News, East Bay Times and other regional publications.
“He loved his job, answering questions from readers and sharing solutions with the community,” Dussault said. “Our roads are safer, and there’s a good chance your commute is smoother, thanks to his Mr. Roadshow column. We’re so grateful that the Bay Area drivers, pedestrians and bike and transit riders got to know and love him just as we did.”
Richards was born in Dubuque, Iowa, Sept. 2, 1951. He earned a degree in political science at Iowa State University, then pursued a graduate degree in journalism while covering sports at the student newspaper, where he met the love of his life, his future wife, Jan, an undergraduate who was writing state news.
“We hit it off pretty quickly” after a blind date, Jan recalled. Richards got a job as a sports editor at the Ames Tribune and never finished the journalism degree — I already have a journalism job, she recalled him telling her.
Richards went from sports editing at the Ames Tribune to the Quad-City Times, where he worked for nearly three years through 1983 before being hired to work in the sports department at the San Jose Mercury News by his former Ames Tribune editor, John Epperheimer, who was drawn to Richards’ “enthusiasm and earnestness and good cheer.”
Richards’ inaugural Roadshow column ran September 23, 1991 — turning his daily dialogue with Bay Area commuters into an art years before Silicon Valley introduced crowdsourcing and social media. “Every Monday we’re going to take transportation questions you have and find some answers,” Richards wrote in that first column. “We may not end the backup, but we hope to make the drive a little better.”
Among the columns Richards was most proud of was one recognizing people who’d performed kind and heroic acts in the transportation world, like the men who rescued a woman who’d fallen off the BART platform onto the tracks in San Francisco. Others pushed for median barriers to improve safety on Highway 85.
And then there was the time Richards, an avid fan of the fuel-efficient Toyota Prius, invited readers to the Mercury News’ old Ridder Park Drive office parking lot to mark the expiration of California’s first-edition yellow carpool stickers that entitled the gas-sipping cars to use carpool lanes. One of the surprise guests was an avid Roadshow reader: Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak. When a fan approached Woz and asked if he could take a photo, he handed the Silicon Valley legend his iPhone, then walked over and threw his arm around Mr. Roadshow and smiled for the camera.
Through it all, Richards earned the respect and admiration of transportation officials and others who worked to promote traffic solutions, such as taxes for road work and BART to the South Bay.
“Gary Richards — Mr. Roadshow — was one of the finest people with whom I’ve ever worked,” said Carl Guardino, former CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which advocated for taxes supporting road improvements and BART. “His road on earth may have come to an end this week, but the path he’s left with his reporting and service to our region will live on forever.”
Eileen Goodwin, former executive director of the Santa Clara County Traffic Authority and now a consultant, said Richards “pointed us in the right direction without being scoldy.”
“That’s really a gift,” Goodwin said.
“He loved doing the column, loved the interaction, loved his profession, loved his family, loved his coworkers,” Jan said Monday. “He was such a good guy.”
Richards was predeceased by his father, Harold, his mother, Eunice, and his brother, Terry. He is survived by his wife Jan, his daughter, Anne, his son Matt, and grandson, Oliver. The family hopes to hold a memorial in February.
