Sign Marking On-Ramp Isn’t Much Help to Motorists

Dear Street Smart:

I’d like to call attention to the sign for the Costa Mesa Freeway on Katella Avenue going west in Orange. It is almost at the freeway on-ramp.

In order to go north, contrary to expectations, you have to be in the left lane. Anyone unfamiliar with the area would have great difficulty, especially in heavy traffic, to get over in time. What’s more, the sign is almost completely obscured by leaves of a nearby tree.

Anita Freedman

Santa Ana

Ah ha, one of my own pet peeves. There are more than 300 freeway ramps in Orange County, and a fair percentage of them are flanked by signs that really don’t do the best job of advising a motorist exactly what lane swings onto the freeway.

Even local officials with the California Department of Transportation admit that there’s room for improvement on this score. But they say there’s insufficient money these days to pay for many upgrades of street signs that point the way to a freeway.

The Katella Avenue on-ramp you speak of is particularly notorious because of its odd arrangement, which defies the typical setup of freeway ramps. Of course, the tree obscuring the sign doesn’t help matters much.

After being alerted to the problem, Caltrans officials promised to do something about the offending branches. But life is never easy. A Caltrans spokesman later said the tree is on private property, so it remains to be seen if the state, the city or the homeowner will get out the pruning sheers.

Dear Street Smart:

I took a snapshot of a one-of-a-kind camper that I have designed and built as a hobby. I wanted to have a vehicle with more miles per gallon than is commonly characteristic of this kind of a recreational vehicle. With the aerodynamic body shape as shown, I was successful. The car gives better gas mileage now than it formerly did as a sedan, in spite of its increased cross-sectional area.

The car started out as a six-passenger Chevrolet Impala. The new top is a shell of fiberglass plastic laid up in a mold that I built. I can stand up in the camper immediately behind the front seats and it has a queen-sized sleeping deck off the rear axle with storage underneath. The car weighs about the same now as it formerly did as a sedan.

Richard B. Wilson

Westminster

Holy camper shell! Paint that thing black and Batman would kill to get a ride in it.

Seriously, I commend your efforts, especially since your new Impala camper gets better gas mileage than the original clunker. Goodness knows, most recreational vehicles are gas guzzlers.

I should know. My father owns an RV. The thing gets about two miles a gallon but could sleep the starting offense of the Rams. Even with massive fuel tanks, dear dad seems to be stopping for gas about every fifth freeway exit.

Richard B. Wilson should be an example to us all. I would like to see other folks send in snapshots of their bold automotive creations. There’s a little Preston Tucker in us all, so get busy with that blow torch and drop a line to Street Smart.

Dear Street Smart:

It seems to me that car-pool lanes were devised to reduce the number of cars on the freeways by giving car-poolers an advantage. The question I have is what makes a car a car pool?

In my opinion, a motorist with a baby or a small child or a non-driving senior citizen as a passenger should not be considered pool. These passengers do not reduce the number of cars on the freeways because they would not be driving by themselves anyway.

I believe that the wording on the car-pool signs should read “2 drivers or more” instead of “2 persons or more.” My two cats are as capable of driving as babies, children and non-driving senior citizens. Shouldn’t I, therefore, be allowed to use the car-pool lane with them in the car? They are persons to me!

Ute Hertel

Irvine

Don’t laugh. My own cat thinks she’s Mario Andretti.

Your point, of course, is well taken. Even the rule makers at Caltrans sympathize with your position. But there are several problems with enacting car-pool lane rules that discriminate based on age.

“It becomes an enforcement problem,” said Joe El-Harake, commuter lanes coordinator for Caltrans in Orange County. “And it complicates signage, too.”

El-Harake cited the example of a mother who picks up the children of another woman to get them to school. By doing so, she is eliminating a freeway trip the other mother would have taken.

Another example: How would a Highway Patrol officer know if that gray-haired man in the passenger seat is a driver?

Unfortunately, car-pool lane rules will never be perfect, nor will they always act to do the job originally intended--to get drivers to buddy up and ease the congestion on our freeways.