‘Super Street’ Plan Seeks to Unclog Arteries

Irked by signal lights that invariably turn red when you approach? Tired of being stalled behind buses that screech to a stop in your lane to pick up passengers? Angry that you’ve been pinned just three cars back from an intersection when all you wanted to do was sneak up and make a simple right turn?

Take heart, Orange County. Transportation planners say they’ve got just the street for you.

In the coming months, authorities will embark on a mission to produce a new and improved brand of thoroughfare in cities from Stanton to San Clemente. Armed with $120 million from the newly approved Measure M sales tax hike, they hope to transform major traffic arteries into swifter versions of their old selves. They’ll lay down additional lanes, carve out new turn pockets, improve the timing of traffic signals and generally upgrade the streets to help speed commuters on their way.

What else could they call it but a “super street”?

Beach Boulevard is the first slated for improvement, with work on a 10-mile segment between Ellis Avenue in Huntington Beach and Lincoln Avenue in Anaheim expected to start in February and be completed in early 1991. Twenty other streets crisscrossing Orange County will be targeted for upgrading to super-street status during the next 10 to 20 years.

The hope of planners at the Orange County Transportation Commission, which is spearheading the effort, is that the retrofitted boulevards will eventually form an intricate, 220-mile web of super streets to ease the crush of traffic on freeways and make travel via surface roads a far more alluring option. Maybe even almost fun.

“We need a good network of major arterials throughout the county,” said Stanley T. Oftelie, the commission’s executive director. “Every trip in Orange County begins on a street. It doesn’t begin on a freeway, it doesn’t begin on a train. It begins on local streets. And the super street is the most important local street.”

Each super street will get a number of improvements designed to make traffic flow a bit quicker:

* They will be widened, typically by adding a lane in each direction. In some cases this will involve purchasing land along the route, in others additional lanes can be squeezed onto the existing pavement.

* Traffic signals will be upgraded so that cars can move more smoothly without being impeded by numerous red lights. Now, the signals in various cities along a route are often incompatible, causing jarring disruptions.

* Curbside parking will be restricted.

* Left- and right-turn lanes will be added.

* Bus turnouts will be added along some routes to keep the lumbering vehicles from clogging the traffic lanes while unloading passengers.

* In 10 to 15 years, “grade separated” intersections might be built at several particularly crowded cross streets, permitting traffic on one route to zoom unimpeded by another road via a freeway-type overpass. Such “flyovers” were initially considered along Beach Boulevard, but rejected several years ago because of concerns about visual impairment and other problems.

Authorities say a typical trip on one of the roads should improve by about 25% after it becomes a super street. So the 35 to 40 minutes it takes to travel Beach Boulevard from Huntington Beach to Buena Park should take about 25 minutes, officials predict.

It all may sound dandy, but super streets aren’t embraced by everyone.

Officials in some cities have raised concerns about giving up right of way for the fancy new corridors or leveled criticism that the wider and swifter boulevards would further divide neighborhoods.

In Stanton, council members balked for a time last summer over plans to limit on-street parking along Beach Boulevard so it could be widened to four lanes in each direction. They eventually relented.

The Garden Grove City Council approved a super street along Katella Avenue only after hammering out a stipulation that any land for extra lanes comes from the Anaheim side of the street, which divides the two cities.

La Habra officials have endorsed transforming Imperial Highway into a super street, but council members raised concerns about having to uproot businesses to make way for more lanes.

Perhaps the greatest dissent has been in Yorba Linda, where the council is expected to consider the issue early next year.

Councilman Henry W. Wedaa, a super-street opponent, says the boulevards will be akin to freeways running through the heart of town. For him, the plan to upgrade Imperial Highway brings back memories of the city’s successful battle two decades ago to turn back the proposed Richard M. Nixon Freeway along the same route.

“Twenty years ago we went through this same battle, except Caltrans was calling this a freeway,” Wedaa said. “Now the county and state are trying to back their way into building another freeway. What they call a super street, I call a mini-freeway.”

Motorists on cross streets, he contends, will be stuck at traffic signals for what will seem an eternity.

“It’s going to bring noise, tremendous air pollution, tremendous accident ratios,” he said. “People won’t be able to get from one side of town to another. Businesses will die because people won’t want to fight the traffic.”

Super-street advocates say such concerns are not warranted. The changes being proposed are designed to improve efficiency, not lure a heavy dose of new traffic to each community, they say.

“If you want to say no to something you can come up with a million reasons, but all we’re doing is making these streets do what they were designed to do and do it better,” said Arya Rohani, commission special projects manager. “The bottom line is if a city does not want a super street, it will not be built in that city’s boundaries.”

Rohani said signal lights along a super street typically won’t stay green much longer than they now do, but they will be better synchronized.

Although 21 super streets are planned, authorities say it is hardly cast in concrete that each will ultimately end up being improved.

Politics, such as the battle now brewing in Yorba Linda, will almost certainly come into play. Laguna Canyon Road, for instance, is designated as a potential super street, but city leaders in Laguna Beach are expected to balk at the proposal unless there is a radical shift in the community’s attitude.

Aside from Beach Boulevard, the only other super streets formally selected by the Transportation Commission are Imperial Highway, Katella Avenue and the South County corridor formed by Moulton Parkway, Irvine Center Drive and Street of the Golden Lantern. Work on those roads is not expected to begin for two to three years, Rohani said.

Super Streets: Orange County’s 21st-Century Roads

Transportation officials will soon embark on an effort to upgrade 21 major thoroughfares lacing Orange County, transforming them into speedier versions of their old selves. Dubbed “super streets,” the improved roads will feature a variety of changes that authorities hope will reduce travel times by 25%. The effort to build the 220-mile network begins in February, with work starting on a 10-mile segment of Beach Boulevard. Within three years, improvements are expected on Imperial Highway, Katella Avenue and the South County corridor formed by Moulton Parkway, Irvine Center Drive and Street of the Golden Lantern. Other streets would be upgraded in the years to follow.

Overpasses: In 10 to 15 years, “grade-separated” intersections could be built at extremely crowded cross streets. A politically touchy issue because of visual impact and need to purchase more real estate from surrounding landowners. Also expensive. Considered for Beach Boulevard, but rejected during planning stages several years ago.

A. Parking: Restrictions on curbside parking. Will permit more lanes for traffic. Typically, restrictions will be for 24 hours, although some cities might push for less stringent limits to assuage businesses.

B. Turn Lanes: Additional left-turn lanes added and right-turn lanes curved into curb. Gives more options for motorists, reducing the long queue of traffic waiting to reach an intersection.

C. Lanes: An extra traffic lane added in each direction. In some cases, it will involve purchasing land along the route, in others additional lanes squeezed onto the existing pavement.

D. Signals: Traffic lights better synchronized to permit cars to travel through several intersections without being impeded by a red light.

E. Bus Stops: Turn outs for buses to load and unload passengers without blocking traffic, a major irritant for motorists caught behind one of the lumbering vehicles.

EMERGING SUPER STREETS

These 21 roads shown with a gray line are being targeted for upgrading to form a 220-mile network of super streets.