Bernson Asks for Solutions to Balboa Boulevard Commuter Issue

Los Angeles Councilman Hal Bernson, jawboned into suspending his attempt to divert a river of commuters out of a Granada Hills neighborhood, Friday challenged critics to help him come up with solutions to the problem of Balboa Boulevard traffic.

But the list of possibilities, so far, is short, several of the entries are costly and few are new.

The Balboa Boulevard shortcut through Granada Hills is popular with thousands of commuters from the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, who use it to bypass the jammed Golden State, San Diego and Simi Valley freeways. In an attempt to placate annoyed residents--his constituents--of the neighborhood that Balboa Boulevard passes through, Bernson got the City Council to pass restrictions, little noticed at the time, that would have effectively banned use of the street by commuters. Signs announcing that the rules--prohibiting right turns onto Balboa Boulevard in the morning rush hours, and left turns onto San Fernando Road in the evening--would become effective next week were erected Tuesday. They were removed Friday after a storm of protests by commuters and their elected officials caused Bernson to back down, at least temporarily, from insisting on the rule changes.

Bernson said he would see to it that the regulations were suspended until a meeting can be held to discuss alternatives.

In a letter to those officials, Bernson said Friday that he had received little help previously with his efforts to solve the traffic problems, which cause residents of areas along Balboa Boulevard to feel trapped in their neighborhoods by commuters who move at a crawl.

“Until the warning signs were posted, our pleas were ignored,” Bernson’s letter said. “I have agreed to meet with all parties concerned--but, we must have action from you . . . to help solve the problem being created by the lack of adequate freeway capacity, job opportunities and a lack of transportation management . . . . “

Caltrans traffic engineers said Friday there are no ready alternatives, because Balboa Boulevard is “a key arterial” route that carries between 2,200 and 2,400 cars hourly during commute hours and helps to ease even greater congestion on the Golden State Freeway between Santa Clarita and the freeway’s intersection with the Simi Valley Freeway. Even with the overflow from the freeway, however, Balboa Boulevard’s four to six lanes operate at less than the roadway’s design capacity, city and state traffic officials said.

Thomas Swire, a senior traffic engineer for Los Angeles, said that short of “building a new road or a new freeway right now, I couldn’t think of” a solution to the congestion on Balboa Boulevard.

Swire said other measures fall into the category of changing commuters’ behavior--finding ways to increase ride-sharing, van pooling or creation of a mass-transit link between residential areas of northern Los Angeles County and the job-rich west San Fernando Valley.

Swire said that a few years ago Bernson had even suggested making Balboa Boulevard a toll road. Ali Sar, a spokesman for Bernson, said, however, that the idea was no longer under consideration.

Sar said no date for the meetings to discuss alternatives had been set. Letters announcing Bernson’s change of heart were sent Friday to representatives of Santa Clarita, Caltrans officials, county Supervisor Mike Antonovich and state Sen. Ed Davis, (R-Santa Clarita).

All had reacted angrily to the idea of shutting Balboa Boulevard to outsiders during commute hours. The city of Santa Clarita even threatened a lawsuit against the restrictions.

Hunt Braly, an aide to Davis, said the “ball is in the councilman’s court. He’s the one who says there is a problem. He’s the one who says the only solution is closing Balboa. He certainly found out that that is difficult to do. Not only politically but legally.”

Mary Edwards, president of the North Valley Coalition of residents, said her organization supports converting the turn lanes at the San Fernando Road-Balboa Boulevard intersection into diamond lanes that could be used only by vehicles with two or more occupants.

“That would work for our community because it would reduce traffic accidents, it would improve air quality and it would work for the commuters from Santa Clarita because they would not be prevented from using that route,” Edwards said.

Norm Leo, an aerospace machinist who uses Balboa Boulevard to commute from Quartz Hill to Chatsworth, suggested that on-ramps be built connecting the Golden State Freeway directly to Balboa Boulevard, so that northbound traffic is not slowed by making left turns onto San Fernando Road.

Until that is done, however, the best solution is to take no action at all, Leo said. And as long as Bernson’s proposed restrictions are a possibility, he said, commuters hope to have an organization powerful enough to block it.

“We’re not going to stop here . . . as long as this issue is still undecided we’re going to keep the pressure on,” Leo said. “We’re not going to let a sleeping dog lie.”