Neighborhood Feels Effect of Traffic Shift

Drivers who avoid the Ventura Freeway by cutting through the Carlton Terrace area of Woodland Hills have prompted the formation of a committee to recommend ways to ease the neighborhood’s traffic problems.

The nine-member citizens advisory committee will hold its first meeting on Monday. The committee, appointed this month by Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus, is made up of homeowner group leaders and other community representatives, said Susan Pasternak, a Picus spokeswoman.

Proposals Later

The committee is to submit its proposed traffic solutions to Picus in the next several months, said Tom Friedman of Concerned Carlton Terrace Homeowners, a committee member.

“The consensus is there is a problem,” Friedman said of the increased number of cars traveling through Carlton Terrace. The increase is not drastic, but substantial, he added. “If we don’t do something now, it will be too late.”

Drivers increasingly are avoiding the crowded Ventura Freeway by taking Oxnard or Clark streets to get in and out of the Warner Center, Friedman said. Those streets run through the heart of Carlton Terrace, a hilly area of mostly single-family homes south of Pierce College.

“The use of stop signs could be an integral part of our overall plan,” Friedman said.

Tom Swire, a city transportation engineer, said Carlton Terrace residents have asked for more stop signs on Oxnard Street to slow speeders.

“As the Warner Center is growing, people are finding different routes into and out of the area,” Swire said. “It appears that Oxnard Street is starting to present itself as the path of least resistance.”

Another Picus-appointed committee met for the first time on Tuesday to prepare a long-range transportation plan for all of Warner Center. The 16-member committee’s emphasis will be on preventing traffic congestion in future Warner Center projects, Pasternak said.