Dear Street Smart:I have noticed an increase...

Dear Street Smart:

I have noticed an increase in the number of motorcyclists that are parking their vehicles adjacent to the entrances of department stores and supermarkets. Motorcycles are usually driven onto sidewalks in front of these businesses and exit in the same manner. I have also noticed that most of these vehicles drip oil that creates an additional pedestrian hazard.

Could you please let me know if this is legal. If it is not, why aren’t more motorcyclists cited for this offense? I can only imagine the public outcry if “two-axle” vehicles parked in this fashion. I feel that it is only a matter of time before a pedestrian is injured as a result of this practice.

Francis Concannon

Santa Ana The practice may not be nice, but since it’s occurring on private property, it’s probably not illegal.

“We can only do what the vehicle code gives us authority to do, and by and large, that applies to public property only,” said Fountain Valley Traffic Sgt. Larry Griswold.

There are some things police can ticket on private property, such as vehicles parked in handicapped spaces, fire lanes or areas where a property owner has no-parking signs posted. However, if there are no signs posting sidewalks and the area near store entrances as no parking, then the police really cannot issue tickets.

“If it’s not posted,” Griswold said, “it’s not enforceable.”

Don’t take that pessimistically. Griswold suggested that you appeal to the management at stores where this is a problem. If they zone these trouble areas as no parking, the police can ticket and tow. Given the safety issues you raise, it seems that stores would do well to heed your suggestion.

By the way, even without posted signs, a property owner can have a vehicle towed from private property without police involvement. For example, a car blocking a store entrance could be removed even if there were no signs posted. The store owner would just have to be ready to defend the action in court, if sued.

“If it’s not posted, then the person who is having the car removed is liable,” said Norm Gaskill, the owner of County Transport, a towing company that serves Westminster, Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley.

Dear Street Smart:

For some weeks, there has been construction activity along the northbound side of the Costa Mesa Freeway between Katella and Lincoln avenues in Orange. A beautiful sound wall is rising among the 28-year-old trees and bushes. Why now after all these years?

If I remember correctly, that freeway was built in 1964 or 1965. Fully grown trees and overgrown bushes line the road. I would think that they would be an effective sound barrier and better than concrete blocks.

Elsewhere on the freeway, the roadbed is badly in need of repair but sound walls are going up. Isn’t something wrong with this picture? I think there is a mix-up in priorities somewhere. Or could it be that the graffiti artists have a strong lobbying organization in Sacramento?

Walter P. Rhea Anaheim The trees and bushes may look thick enough to muffle sounds, but the greenery is doing little to protect those homes from excessive noise, according to Caltrans. Therefore, state law requires the agency to build a sound wall to shield those residences.

The homes you mention are getting their sound wall through a program that retrofits freeways with sound barriers. Through this program, homes experiencing excessive freeway noise--over 67 decibels--get walls if the homes were built before the freeway was put through, according to Al Fisher, the local Caltrans official in charge of air, noise and water quality. That level of sound is about equal to being out on a busy street at midday.

The retrofit program has a priority list that is over 10 years long, and those homeowners have probably waited several years to finally get their wall. “There are projects that won’t get constructed until the year 2000,” Fisher said.

Sound walls are also put up when new major freeway construction takes place, if surrounding homes will be facing excessive noise after work is done. That’s why you see so many other sound wall projects taking place along the Costa Mesa Freeway. They are part of several widening projects underway along the freeway, Fisher said.

Dear Street Smart:

There is only one westbound traffic lane on Mesa Drive at Newport Boulevard in Costa Mesa. If the first car is going straight, then cars behind wanting to turn right have to wait until a green light appears. It appears that there is enough room to add a new lane.

Paul Ryckoff Corona del Mar Costa Mesa looked into your suggestion but found that adding another lane would be unsafe. Cars driving across the intersection in the new lane would be forced to cross at a dangerously sharp angle, since the two halves of Mesa Drive are not directly across from each other.

Painted lines in the intersection wouldn’t help because motorists tend not to follow them, if the offset between two halves of a street is too large, said Peter Naghavi, Costa Mesa’s transportation manager.

Naghavi understands the problem that right-turn traffic is having out there and said the city may eventually acquire land to expand the intersection. But at the moment, he said, such work is not a pressing need because traffic on westbound Mesa is relatively light.