Creating More One-Way Roads Is a Two-Way Street

Dear Street Smart:

Come around the world a little bit. How come we do not believe in one-way streets and avenues? They eliminate the middle lane for left turns, are cheaper than building new freeways and are faster. We do have a lot of wide avenues that cross Orange County. Two lanes both ways would become five lanes one way. They do this all over the world--Europe, South America, Asia. I could see a lot of streets that would be alternatives to the Costa Mesa and Riverside freeways. Also, you wouldn’t need as many lights.

Andre P. Porro, Costa Mesa

Traffic engineers in Orange County agree that one-way streets can be great--but only in the right places. One-way streets can effectively increase the traffic flow in downtown areas with short city blocks, the engineers say. But elsewhere, this type of streets might cause problems.

“Where you have a well-defined business district with short blocks and lots of opportunities to turn, there it works well,” said Orange County Traffic Engineer Ignacio Ochoa. Outside of downtown areas, “you introduce a lot of potentials for out-of-the-way driving,” he said.

For example, downtown drivers who miss stopping at a store can easily loop around the small city block and return to it. In a more suburban setting, blocks are larger and not so quickly looped. That can be inconvenient for both drivers and business owners.

“You’re going to go a mile around,” said Conrad Lapinski, Irvine’s traffic engineer. “That’s a pretty big concern to a retailer depending on impulse buying. People can’t get back.”

Another drawback is safety. Some drivers might choose to head the wrong way down an inconvenient one-way street.

“It’s amazing the lengths people will go to save going an extra 100 yards in their car,” said Jim Otterson, traffic engineer in Huntington Beach.

As an example, Otterson told of a situation in Huntington Beach where drivers would drive on the wrong side of a street in order to turn into a shopping center, rather than making a U-turn at a nearby signal.

“These are the kinds of things that you see,” Otterson said.

Santa Ana is an Orange County city with a downtown grid system amenable to one-way streets. Santa Ana Boulevard and 5th Street are matched up as a “couplet,” where traffic flows east along 5th and west along Santa Ana Boulevard.

One-ways offer Santa Ana a way to increase traffic flow without expanding roads--which would destroy buildings that stand right along the streets.

“You certainly don’t want to provide additional capacity by taking out the businesses,” said Joyce Amerson, the city’s transportation manager.

Santa Ana is considering creating new one-way couplets, but any decision is on hold while a traffic circulation study is completed, Amerson said.

Dear Street Smart:

Is something planned for the eastbound Riverside Freeway at the Fullerton city limits where the freeway crosses over the Santa Ana Freeway? The problem is that the Riverside Freeway narrows from four lanes to two lanes at this point.

Examining the area, it appears that there is sufficient room on the Santa Ana Freeway overpass to have at least a third lane. Likewise, there is plenty of room to widen both sides of the freeway on the Magnolia Avenue and Gilbert Street overpasses.

How about an update on this mess?

Michael V. Stratton, Brea

There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that Caltrans is getting plans approved to widen that portion of the freeway where you are finding trouble. The plans would add a regular freeway lane and a car-pool lane to both sides of the freeway, according to Caltrans spokeswoman Irene Perez. Now the bad news: the estimated construction date is not until 1997.

Dear Street Smart:

At The City Drive off-ramp from the eastbound Garden Grove Freeway in Orange, one is often faced with the potential for collision. The ramp’s left lane feeds cars into the left-most lane of northbound The City Drive. This lane on The City Drive leads cars back onto the freeway, so drivers must slow down to merge right.

Re-striping would allow that lane to direct cars into the middle lane of The City Drive. This would save a lot of foul-mouthed tension among drivers.

Lino Aldana, Orange

This time Caltrans spokeswoman Irene Perez delivers only good news. Caltrans investigated your problem and is going to make the modifications you suggest, she said.

Caltrans will paint markings on the pavement to guide traffic from the left ramp lane into the middle lane of The City Drive.

Cars in that lane will have the option of entering the left lane on The City Drive, too. Similar markings, known as “cat-tracks,” will guide cars from the right ramp lane into the right The City Drive lane, helping to avoid conflicts. The re-striping is planned for August, Perez said.

Want to know more about improvements planned for Imperial Highway from the Los Angeles County line to Santa Ana Canyon Road? The Orange County Transportation Authority is holding public hearings about the changes to Imperial Highway in Yorba Linda and Brea this week.

Plans call for widening and restriping Imperial Highway to six lanes from the Los Angeles County line to Lakeview Avenue in Yorba Linda; to four lanes from Lakeview to Orangethorpe Avenue in Anaheim; and to eight lanes from Orangethorpe to Santa Ana Canyon Road.

The widening and other work is meant to transform Imperial into a more efficient “super-street.”

The first hearing will be Tuesday at the Yorba Linda City Council Chambers, 4845 Casa Loma Ave. The second meeting will be Wednesday at the Brea City Council Chambers, 1 Civic Center Circle. Each begin at 7 p.m.

For more information, contact OCTA at (714) 571-5826.