Traffic Rule Blocking Shortcut to Be Suspended

A Los Angeles regulation that had outraged commuters from the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys, because it would have forbidden them to use a popular shortcut to jobs in the San Fernando Valley, will be suspended indefinitely, Councilman Hal Bernson said Thursday.

Despite opposition from city traffic engineers, the Los Angeles City Council had quietly passed the regulation at Bernson’s request. It blocked access to Balboa Boulevard, the main alternative to bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Golden State, San Diego and Simi Valley freeways for commuters who cross the Santa Susana Mountains to the West Valley.

The ordinance--which would have prevented right turns onto Balboa from San Fernando Road in the morning rush hours and left turns off Balboa onto San Fernando in the evening--was to have gone into effect Tuesday. Bernson wrote it at the request of constituents in Granada Hills neighborhoods through which the shortcut traffic now flows.