Ventura Boulevard Traffic Gets Relief, but It May Not Last

Traffic along the entire 17-mile length of Ventura Boulevard within the city of Los Angeles should flow more smoothly with the recent start-up of a computer system that controls the timing of traffic lights, a city transportation official said Tuesday.

But the relief may only be temporary.

City Department of Transportation engineer John Fisher said all 82 intersections with traffic lights along the boulevard were put on the computerized system on Dec. 29.

Similar systems operating elsewhere in the city have increased the number of cars a street can carry by 7% while reducing traffic delays by as much as 20%, Fisher said. “It results in a smoother flow of traffic in the aggregate,” he said.

Unfortunately for boulevard motorists, completion of the computerized traffic signal project along Ventura Boulevard comes as Caltrans prepares to begin the final phase of its widening of the Ventura Freeway. That traffic-snarling project will force many motorists off the freeway and onto Ventura Boulevard, erasing many of the traffic flow gains realized by the computerized system.

“Once lanes are closed on the freeway due to the widening project and commuters get on the boulevard, some of the benefits of the computerized system will be lost temporarily,” Fisher said.

Fisher’s comments came after he testified before the Los Angeles City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee about the transportation department’s request for interim funding to pay for the design of a computerized signal project for more than 320 additional intersections in the San Fernando Valley.

The full system for the Valley, which is scheduled for completion in February, 1992, at a cost of $20.7 million, would cover all intersections from Victory Boulevard on the north to Ventura Boulevard on the south and from Valley Circle Boulevard on the west to Lankershim Boulevard on the east.

The computer system, which relies on video cameras and traffic sensors embedded in the roadway to monitor traffic flow, is officially called the Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control (ATSAC) project. Similar systems are in operation in downtown Los Angeles and around the Coliseum.

The final, 51-intersection leg of the Ventura Boulevard phase of the project was completed two days before a deadline urged by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar). Katz wanted the ATSAC system installed along Ventura Boulevard before the freeway-widening project began and had been critical in the past of city efforts to complete the system.