L.A. to Restripe Ventura Blvd., Curb Parking on Congested Streets

Additional steps to ease traffic congestion on San Fernando Valley streets, including restriping stretches of Ventura Boulevard to provide for an additional westbound lane, were announced Monday by Mayor Tom Bradley.

Bradley also announced expansion of a rush-hour parking ban along large parts of Balboa, Ventura and Topanga Canyon boulevards and De Soto Avenue. The improvements are expected to be completed by mid-September.

“The result of these traffic improvements will be to increase traffic capacity by 25% to 35% . . . reduce air pollution by more than 40 tons of particulates a year and lower the number of cars diverting through San Fernando Valley residential neighborhoods during peak hours,” the mayor said at a news conference along busy Ventura Boulevard in Encino.

The improvements include restriping Ventura Boulevard to add a westbound lane between Sepulveda and Balboa boulevards in Encino and between Winnetka Avenue and Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Woodland Hills.

The restriping will give those stretches of Ventura four westbound lanes during evening rush hours, from 3:30 to 7 p.m., when parking also is prohibited on the north side of the street, and three lanes at other times.

Some Lanes Closed

The project, expected to start in a few weeks, will require closing some lanes, probably on weekends, said Tom Conner, city traffic engineer. The additional lane will be created by narrowing existing lanes from 11 feet and 12 feet to 10 feet.

Conner said Los Angeles has many streets with 10-foot and even 9-foot lanes. “The motorist probably won’t notice it,” he said.

The city is considering restriping other portions of Ventura Boulevard, the Valley’s busiest street, but chose to start on stretches that are considered among the most congested.

The worst traffic on Ventura Boulevard--3,047 cars an hour--occurs through Encino in the westbound lanes during the evening rush hour, according to traffic engineers. During the morning rush hour, from 7 to 9 a.m., 2,293 cars per hour travel eastbound.

Some of the work will be done by the state Department of Transportation as part of its program to reduce congestion caused by widening of the Ventura Freeway, Conner said.

The expanded parking ban will prohibit rush-hour parking on Balboa Boulevard between Ventura Boulevard and Rinaldi Street and on De Soto Avenue and Topanga Canyon Boulevard between Victory Boulevard and Devonshire Street.

More Traffic Officers

The restrictions will also apply in the morning to the south side of Ventura between Reseda Boulevard and Winnetka Avenue, providing a third lane for eastbound traffic during the morning rush hour.

Bradley also said he will ask the City Council to appropriate funds to hire six traffic control officers to work exclusively in the Valley enforcing parking restrictions, including ordering the towing of illegally parked vehicles. The city has 16 traffic control officers devoted to enforcing rush-hour parking restrictions.

“No stopping” signs will be installed in about a month. The first week the parking restrictions are in effect, warnings will be issued to violators. Then violators will be subject to a $53 fine plus towing fees.

“Traffic improvements similar to these have made a major improvement in the flow of traffic in every heavily traveled section of our city,” Bradley said.

The improvements come as the city is installing a system of computerized traffic signals between Ventura and Victory boulevards. The first phase of the system is expected to be in operation at the end of the month on Ventura Boulevard between Reseda and Valley Circle boulevards, said S. Edwin Rowe, acting general manager of the city’s Department of Transportation. The computerized traffic signal system was introduced during the 1984 Olympics to guide traffic around the Coliseum.