Driver Seeing Red Over Backup on the Peninsula

Dear Street Smart:

I am writing about the stoplight at Newport Boulevard and Via Lido in Newport Beach. While northbound Newport traffic has a green light, southbound traffic (toward the beach) has a tedious red light. Traffic often backs up to Hospital Road, past Coast Highway. Getting onto the Balboa Peninsula is obnoxious.

This is so frustrating for residents! I think that one lane should be allocated to residents, similar to the lane that leads into the Fun Zone.

Bruce H. Katz, Newport Beach

Yes, it’s definitely a bummer to find out on a Friday night that lots of people in the county have decided that Balboa is party central while you’re trying to go home.

Ironically, your woes getting onto the peninsula are due to construction meant to eliminate a major northbound bottleneck at Via Lido. When the sun sets on a nice summer day, traffic leaving the area can often back up for miles, Newport Beach Traffic Engineer Rich Edmonston said.

A new lane leading to Coast Highway should bring relief to those getting off the peninsula by late fall or winter. But in the meantime, the road work is adding to the congestion. That, no doubt, infuriates many homeward-bound Balboa residents.

Making matters worse, Newport Boulevard temporarily lost one of its heavily used left-turn lanes onto Via Lido because of the construction, so one of its southbound through lanes was drafted to do double duty as a replacement. Since there’s no way to predict if a car in the dual-purpose lane will go straight or turn, all southbound traffic must stop so northbound vehicles can move safely.

To help alleviate the problem, the city and Caltrans have adjusted the signal’s timing and studied the traffic flow in the area over the past week in an effort to fine-tune the system.

But tempting fixes for locals such as extending the residents-only lane beyond 20th Street would only create more traffic, Edmonston said. The farther back that lane goes, the more residents there are who can use it. It would fill up, as would the non-restricted lanes, by inbound traffic that must move over.

There is hope: Use Balboa Boulevard to get on the peninsula, an alternate route many residents favor. It can be less congested. If cars start backing up at Hospital Road, detour up Hospital and go over to Superior Avenue. That will put you right across from Balboa Boulevard--bypassing all the day-trippers who don’t know better.

Dear Street Smart:

There are two very ineffective traffic signals in my business area.

The Sunkist Street and Cerritos Avenue signal in Anaheim commands for great length what is usually an empty intersection. A few weeks ago, for reasons unknown, the lights were switched to flashing red for a day or so. What traffic was there moved along beautifully. What’s needed here are either stop signs or a permanent flashing red.

At Katella and Struck avenues, the left-turn light on westbound Katella used to function fairly well, assumedly on a “demand basis,” until someone attempted to fix the non-problem a few months ago. Now the experienced stay on Katella, then make a U-turn, and those turning off Struck onto Katella are piled up for great lengths.

Don Coulson, Orange

If you’re waiting ages to make a turn when there’s no opposing traffic, it might seem that stop signs could do a better job. But traffic engineers say you need to consider that each intersection is not an isolated island unto itself, but rather part of an overall system.

In both cases here, the signals are coordinated with others around them so that traffic can cruise along without having to stop for cars making left turns off side streets.

The Katella and Struck intersection recently was changed to fit this purpose. And you’ve noted the drawback traffic engineers readily admit--that it takes longer to make your turn.

“There’s always a trade-off,” said Dennis Schmitz, a senior civil engineer for the city of Orange. “To a small extent, people on side streets and in left-turn lanes have to suffer a little.”

The big gain is more efficient traffic patterns throughout the county, a worthy aim when freeway speeds are dropping. With coordinated signals, you can move more quickly and efficiently.

But why not abandon coordination during the off-peak times, which seems to be the case when you’re at the empty intersection of Sunkist and Cerritos? To a degree, this happens. A smaller amount of time is devoted to Cerritos during these slack times. By the way, engineers say the intersection is plenty busy during rush hours--that’s why it has a signal.

Even though cars might not be whizzing past constantly, coordination still has a role to play. Perhaps the only pack of cars is heading down Cerritos. If the signal tries to let cross traffic through before the pack arrives, chances are it won’t have enough time to switch back over to green, said Steve Cyra, an associate traffic engineer for the city of Anaheim. Then that group of cars comes to a halt so one or two could get through the intersection.

Schmitz said he’d be happy to hear from you about the Katella intersection so he could double-check to see if the signal was working properly. That probably holds true for most cities if the signal seems abnormal. Letting their public works department know about the problem might help solve it. And, of course, there’s always Street Smart.

Dear Street Smart:

One of the worse traffic problems ever is the Riverside Freeway through Santa Ana Canyon in the Anaheim Hills. And with all the continued building going on, it is only going to get worse!

With all that room in the middle of the freeway, why not build a two-, three-, four- or six-lane freeway, either on the ground or above, and only have on- and off-ramps at certain places?

Yvonne Aumiller, Long Beach

Ask and it shall be granted. Plans are already in the works to build a four-lane tollway down the center median. The tollway would be 10 miles long, running from the Costa Mesa Freeway in Anaheim to the county line.

Caltrans is working out details with a private company to build the $88.3-million tollway. Construction could begin in early 1992, with the tollway opening in 1994, said Albert Miranda, a Caltrans spokesman.

According to the plan, solo drivers will be charged $2 during peak periods and $1 during other times. Car pools, public transportation and motorcycles could use the lanes for free.