Help for Sunflower’s Lane Squeeze Still Down the Road

Dear Street Smart:

Over the last few years, I have seen several accidents on Sunflower Avenue in Santa Ana, west of Fairview Road, because of a failure to merge.

Just past the intersection with Fairview, Sunflower’s two lanes are expected to merge into one in front of the entrance to a large school. There are problems with this:

* People are trying to turn into the school parking lot at the same time as other people are trying to merge into one lane.

* The regional postal center is a block down the road, and many people resist merging left since they are going to be turning right into the center.

* Sunflower traffic coming from the east does not expect to lose a lane.

Since people insist on treating westbound Sunflower as a two-lane road, and since it seems wide enough for two lanes, why doesn’t the city just mark it as two lanes? It also looks like there is plenty of room to expand the eastbound side if a little paving was done.

Robin Soto Currier, San Juan Capistrano

Don’t bank on Sunflower being restriped soon. The traffic demand along the road between Fairview and the post office is not heavy enough to make expansion necessary, according to officials in Santa Ana and Costa Mesa. The road runs between both cities.

Westbound Sunflower may look wide enough, but it is just short of having enough room to be made into two lanes, said Al Mesch, an associate traffic engineer with Santa Ana.

To get the extra room, the left-turn area between both sides of the street would have to be eliminated. That won’t happen, because there are more people who need to make left turns than need to have a two-lane westbound Sunflower, Mesch said.

Another option would be to expand the road on its eastbound side, as you note. But Costa Mesa officials say that will happen only when property along that side of the road is developed. That way, the developer will foot the bill for the road improvements.

It’s not all disappointing news. Both cities agree that there is a potential for problems in front of that school, although Costa Mesa has recorded only two accidents in the past three years, according to Costa Mesa engineering technician Gary Wong.

Since the school is in Santa Ana, that city will be working to see if another parking lot, farther down the road, could be used. That might relieve the accident potential in the area.

Dear Street Smart:

I don’t understand the lack of sidewalks on the Kraemer Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue bridges over the Santa Ana River. There is quite a long stretch of river with no proper accommodation for a pedestrian crossing. I don’t know what the width requirement is, but the roads look wide enough for sidewalks.

Robert E. Spenger, Fullerton

When the bridges were built, sidewalks were probably seen as unnecessary due to low pedestrian demand and left off to save money, says John Lower, Anaheim’s traffic and transportation manager.

While new bridges are now built with sidewalks, Anaheim probably won’t upgrade the two you mention for a while, Lower said. The city is concentrating on constructing sidewalks along school routes, in places where they are lacking. Since few schoolchildren, if any, are crossing those bridges to get to class, they aren’t a priority, Lower said.

Dear Street Smart:

Last year at a large, public meeting, the Mission Viejo City Council assured us that Alicia Parkway, from Olympiad Road to Santa Margarita Parkway, would be opened between November and February. It’s been paved, probably needs a top coating and traffic lines. But that’s a week’s job, at the most. What are they waiting for? The joint opening of Oso Parkway from Felipe Road to Antonio Parkway at the same time is a relative impossibility. It’s better to have Alicia opened as the construction delays on Oso seem to be interminable.

Jack Lowell, Coto de Caza

Everyone says to blame rain for the delay. It has apparently slowed up work and pushed back the opening to mid- or late March, according to Mission Viejo, the Mission Viejo Co. and county officials. On the bright side, the opening no longer depends on Oso Parkway completion.

Oso itself is expected to open in early May, Wetzel said.

Readers may recall David C. Rosenbaum’s complaint about traffic congestion on Laguna Hills Drive, because of the heavy demand to turn left on Paseo de Valencia, in Laguna Hills. Rosenbaum suggested allowing left-turns from both traffic lanes on Laguna Hills Drive, rather than just from one.

Orange County Traffic Engineer Ignacio Ochoa said he would have the intersection re-examined. Upon review, he’s going ahead with Rosenbaum’s suggestion.

“We’re going to do the modification,” Ochoa said. “That was a good suggestion that he had.”