Roadwork Is Sidetracking Completion of Sidewalks

Dear Street Smart:

It is very difficult to walk over the San Diego Freeway at Bristol Street in Costa Mesa. The pedestrian lights and crosswalks are all in place, but the sidewalk is incomplete at different places on both sides of the street.

People trying to walk across are forced to walk in the dirt or in the street. There is quite a bit of foot traffic there, now that the area south of the freeway has been built up. With South Coast Plaza on one side and the Red Lion hotel on the other, I’m surprised that they haven’t done something about it by now. It is probably under multiple jurisdiction, with the city, state and federal governments involved, which is enough to screw up anything.

Don Lafferty, Costa Mesa Costa Mesa officials say plans are in the works to fix that sidewalk gap, but it won’t be for a couple of years.

The incomplete sidewalks are on a portion of the roadway controlled by the state, according to Bill Morris, Costa Mesa’s public works director.

Morris said a design engineer has been hired to rework the traffic network in that key segment leading to and from South Coast Plaza. The sidewalks will be completed as part of that process.

On the east side of the roadway, the sidewalks should be under construction by early 1992, Morris said.

On the west side, it’s a different story. Plans call for the addition of a new traffic lane there, but work is not expected to begin until mid-1993. Morris said sidewalks can’t be laid down until the new southbound lane is added, hence the delay.

Aside from the sidewalks and additional lane, the roadwork will include a new, tri-lane left turn from the northbound lanes of Bristol Street into South Coast Plaza at Anton Boulevard, Morris said.

Dear Street Smart:

Although I live in Mission Viejo, my office is just off Jamboree Road in Irvine. When Alton Parkway was completed from Trabuco Road north, I was delighted, because I could drive the 15 miles to my office without using the freeway. That delight was short-lived, however, because of the traffic-signal timing.

In the 10 miles from Trabuco Road to Jamboree Road, there are (if I counted correctly) 28 traffic signals. Although the speed limit is 50 m.p.h. most of the way, it takes from 20 to 30 minutes to travel that 10 miles because eight to 22 lights will be red, causing drivers to brake excessively and sit at red lights spewing impurities into the air. In many instances, once a light turns green and you start to move, you will see the next one turn amber, then red, even if the distance between signals is only two or three blocks. The side-street traffic is very light most of the day.

The same problem exists in Mission Viejo on Alicia Parkway from Marguerite Parkway west to the freeway. Side-street traffic is sometimes heavy, but when it takes from 10 to 15 minutes to travel four miles on a main thoroughfare, something has to be wrong with the traffic-signal timing.

Do the people who determine traffic-signal timing ever drive the primary routes to see why there is so much congestion on our parkways?

John W. Randell, Mission Viejo Just like you and me, transportation planners find themselves in traffic most days of the week. And just like you and me, they can get a tad irritated when the system isn’t working at its best.

But getting traffic signals properly timed is a difficult task. Roads that cut through a multitude of municipalities (most major thoroughfares in Orange County do just that) can get bogged down because signal systems from city to city don’t “communicate” too well. It’s often the luck of the draw that determines whether you’ll hit a green or a red when you cross a city limit or pass a freeway, where the signals are controlled by the California Department of Transportation.

There are other problems as well. Signal lights on twisting roads are harder to synchronize, and little things like cars on the cross streets, pedestrians in the crosswalks or someone making a left turn can also throw the best-planned system into a tizzy. Moreover, a motorist can cause problems for himself by speeding from intersection to intersection instead of keeping a steady pace at the speed limit in keeping with the timing of the signals.

Mechanical glitches can also plague a signal system. One erratic signal can throw off a stream of cars, creating a bottleneck that can turn the smoothest commute into a nightmare. And, of course, a flood of rush-hour traffic can cause traffic problems on the most carefully synchronized thoroughfare.

But enough apologies. The fact of the matter is that many traffic signals in Orange County need some help. It would seem that a little fine-tuning would do the trick, but transportation engineers say the real remedy lies in more sophisticated signal-control systems and traffic management centers with computers and trained personnel who can adjust the network to take care of hot spots.

With the passage of the state gas-tax hike and Measure M, the $3-billion transportation funding measure for Orange County, a lot more money will be available for such remedies. Now let’s just hope that windfall will produce more green lights.

Dear Street Smart:

Good-driving manuals suggest that when stopping behind another vehicle, the driver stay back far enough to see the bottom of the rear tires on the pavement. It allows enough room to pull out and around in case of a stall. Also, if one gets hit from behind (unless it’s a high-speed accident), one will not be pushed or slammed into the vehicle ahead.

Thad Beck, Huntington Beach Some sound reasoning and good driving tips. But I think the Dec. 10 letter-writer was complaining about those folks who leave as much as a car length between themselves and someone to the front, causing the queue of cars at a light to stretch out so far that some are forced to miss a green light.

A full car length may be a bit much, but squeezing too close, as you suggest, can cause problems of its own. So everyone should hit the brakes in time to produce a safe compromise.