No service here: Emergency roadside call boxes to disappear from freeways

Some familiar sights along Sacramento-area freeways will soon disappear. Dozens of roadside call boxes are being removed by the end of the year.

For more than a quarter century, the yellow call boxes have been a roadside resource for drivers with an emergency.

This has really made the difference between someone getting help sooner than they otherwise would have,” said Matthew Carpenter with the Sacramento Area Council of Governments.

The solar-powered connect directly with dispatchers who can send help for anything from a flat tire to a serious car crash. But now many of these highway helpers will soon disappear.

Currently, the boxes use the 3G cellphone spectrum which is scheduled to be discontinued by Verizon at the end of 2019. The volume of calls coming from these boxes is also dropping.

“As people have more mobile phones, the need for call boxes has diminished over time,” Carpenter said.

Some boxes, like the one at Highway 99 and Interstate 5 went a whole year without being used. Others are still pretty popular, like the one near the Sacramento International Airport, which had 46 emergency calls in 2017.

Officials said 154 boxes are being deactivated including a quarter of the ones in Sacramento County, more than half of the ones in San Joaquin County, and 81 percent of the El Dorado County boxes.

The Sacramento Area Council of Governments, which operates the boxes, says some will be upgraded to newer technology, but it’s not economical to retrofit ones that rarely get used.

“We feel that we’ve found the right balance between the boxes we’re maintaining and the ones we’re getting rid of so that we’re best spending the public dollar,” Carpenter said.

Funding for the boxes comes from a $1 fee on vehicle registration. The money saved will now go toward freeway service patrols and other roadway safety programs.