For Those Searching for Freeway, Clarity Goes South

Dear Street Smart:

People driving on Brookhurst Street from the ocean who want to pick up the San Diego Freeway going south in Fountain Valley don’t have any sign telling them that you have to turn on Talbert Avenue to pick up the freeway.

If there is a sign, it is almost beyond that or blocked. You get over the freeway, find there is no way to get on, then have to figure out how to turn around and get back.

Lynn Merles

Costa Mesa

As a matter of fact, there is a sign, but not much of one.

A couple hundred feet before the intersection stands a small placard that says “north” and has an arrow pointing straight, and “south” with an arrow pointing right. But there is nothing on the sign saying anything about the San Diego Freeway.

This, of course, begs the question: Just where is this sign sending you? Way down south in the land of Dixie? South of the border, down Mexico way? South America? The South Pole?

A California Transportation Department spokesman in Orange County said the sign does not belong to Caltrans and was probably placed on the spot when the city widened the road. The agency was not aware of the troublesome placard and has never received any complaints about the dearth of guidance the sign provides, the spokesman said.

A solution may be in sight. The Orange County Transit District has funded a program to upgrade signs throughout Orange County on streets leading to freeways.

When told by Street Smart of the vexing Brookhurst Street sign, agency officials said they would give it a look and probably include it in the upgrade program. A new, more informative sign will probably be in place by the end of the year, they said.

Dear Street Smart:

Your column on bicyclists (July 16) was quite biased. If they can’t obey traffic regulations, don’t ride.

Your article encourages them to think traffic rules apply to others, not them. You sound like Zsa Zsa!

Dale E. Cornelison

Laguna Hills

I have arrived! I sound like Zsa Zsa Gabor! I can now die peacefully, content that I have perfected the art of incomprehension.

Fact is, I find the reasons bicyclists voice for running stop signs and traffic lights to be rather lame. Running a stop sign is running a stop sign, whether one is on a bicycle or behind the wheel of a Porsche. Plain and simple, it’s illegal. And dangerous.

So, like Zsa Zsa says, don’t run stop signs--and don’t slap cops.

Dear Street Smart:

Going north on Jamboree Road, just south of Campus Drive, a new lane makes an appearance that could be used as a “right turn only” lane. Unfortunately, this lane is not designated as a turn-only lane, so inevitably one or more through-traffic drivers will swing over and stop at the light, backing up all the other cars that would otherwise stop briefly and then turn right onto Campus Drive.

At the evening rush hour I have seen this lane backed up south of Birch Street, and I have sat through two or more light changes before I can get up front and turn right. There is really no reason for through traffic to pull over into this lane because the next intersection is a very long block north of Campus Drive and any drivers wanting to turn right at Michelson Drive would have plenty of time to get over.

It would be no hazard or inconvenience for them to stay out of the far-right lane until after they clear Campus Drive, making it possible for right-turners to continue in a more or less continuous forward movement around the corner.

All we need is an arrow or two and a sign and-- voila! --everyone is home earlier in a sweeter mood.

Dixie La Shell

Irvine

Seems to make sense to me, but traffic planners look at such situations in a much different way. For them, it’s the numbers that count.

Typically, a right-turn only pocket is put in a street only when there are about 300 or 350 cars that make the turn at peak hours, according to Bonnie Miller, a senior transportation analyst with the city of Irvine. Northbound drivers on Jamboree Road turning east onto Campus Drive amount to about 281 during the peak morning hour and 145 in the evening peak, she said.

“Basically, there currently just isn’t the traffic volume to warrant a right-turn there,” Miller said, adding that there are no plans to add such a lane in the near future, even though Jamboree Road has been designated as a “super street” and therefore is being eyed for possible improvements.

But she said there is an alternative for motorists who want to turn right at Campus Drive. A bike lane runs along Jamboree Road in that area. Motorists are not allowed to cross the solid white line that marks most of the lane’s length. But they can merge into the bicycle lane to make a turn where the line becomes a string of broken white dashes about 150 feet before the intersection.

Miller said many motorists are unaware that they can use the bike lane to make their right turns. She cautioned, however, that they should be careful and watch out for cyclists before merging into the lane and while turning.