Anaheim : City Acts to Ease Traffic in Disneyland Corridor

Responding to complaints that traffic congestion around Disneyland and the Convention Center might hurt business, the Anaheim City Council on Tuesday voted to spend another $11 million to help visitors and residents get in and out of town.

With the new allocation and the five-year improvement project completed in December, 1984, the city will have spent $49 million by 1990 to upgrade the area.

“For many years, we have taken the brunt of promoters’ wrath as they fume about the inadequacy of our streets and our poor traffic,” E. J. Stotereau, operations manager of the Convention Center said in a written appeal to the council.

“Because of all the traffic on the street,” he said later, “not as many people are able to come to the shows.”

The $11 million will be used to widen streets, improve signals and pay for landscaping on Katella Avenue, Harbor Boulevard, Convention Way and Ball Road.

The sector is one of the most heavily traveled corridors in Orange County.

City officials plan to speed up the flow of traffic by making double left-turn lanes at major intersections and closing some mid-block median lanes now used for left turns.

“Traffic can flow through the area; it’s just a matter of refining the system,” said Shirley Land, associate traffic engineer.

Electronic message boards, such as those on the freeways, will be installed to advise motorists of local traffic conditions.

Major hotels in the area and Disneyland officials have lobbied for the improvements for some time.

Traffic occasionally becomes gridlocked in the area during the peak tourist season, as happened on Dec. 28. June also is a particularly busy month, with Disneyland crowds, baseball games at Anaheim Stadium and high school proms at the Convention Center.

City officials also said improved synchronization of signals and added parking space should help pedestrians.

“Pedestrian traffic . . . is haphazard at the very best,” said Councilman E. Llewellyn Overholt Jr. “It really worries me.”