Their Numbers Are Up : Speeders Read and Weep in Test of Radar Device on Busy Griffith Park Blvd.

Los Angeles residents who like to drive fast: Watch for the numbers.

Those big-screen radar devices that have been popping up in suburban communities to inform drivers of their excessive speed made their Los Angeles debut Wednesday.

On Griffith Park Boulevard, a busy strip of roadway referred to by irate neighbors as the “Silver Lake Freeway,” City Councilman Michael Woo and Los Angeles traffic officers tested one of the new “speed controllers” as skeptical neighbors looked on.

Basically a big speedometer, the device is designed to discourage speeding by posting radar readings of how fast cars are going as they approach the device.

Speeds will flash on a screen in 12-inch, bright yellow digits for motorists and the world to see. Occasionally, traffic officers will be there too, Woo said.

The number of citations issued has increased in the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys, where the device has been in use since September, Woo said.

Residents living near Griffith Park Boulevard and Scotland Street--where the $1,800 device clocked speeds--voiced doubts Wednesday about whether it would solve their problems.

When a traffic signal was removed from the intersection almost 20 years ago, more than a mile of uncontrolled roadway on Griffith Park Boulevard was left open to shortcutting motorists on their way to the nearby Golden State Freeway or downtown by way of surface streets, neighbors said.

Jane Deacon, 77, who has lived on Scotland Street more than 30 years, complained that, because of rushing traffic, residents no longer can get safely in and out of driveways and side streets along Griffith Park Boulevard.

Deacon said that when neighbors requested that the signal be reinstalled, she was told by city officials that the amount of cross traffic at the corner “didn’t warrant a signal.”

“The point of having signals and stop signs and officers is to keep the traffic moving. No one cares about us. During rush hour, we wait 10 minutes for a chance to drive across the street or get out of a driveway.”

The new device may decrease the general traffic speed, she said, but it will not break up the rapid flow of cars the way traffic signals would.

During the evening rush hour, between 5 and 6 p.m., about 1,000 cars pass through the intersection, said Zaki Mustafa, an engineer assistant for the Department of Transportation.

Woo, who lives a half-mile from the roadway, said his office eventually will buy a “traffic controller” device to be permanently posted at the intersection. Woo added that he is encouraging the city to purchase devices for each of the 15 council districts.

During the one-hour trial Wednesday, five motorists were ticketed for speeding, Central Traffic Division Sgt. Ronald Newton said.

“When we were citing them, they asked what was going on,” said Officer Mike Widder. “Because of everyone who gathered around, the people who sped by said they couldn’t see their speeds on the computer sign.”