South County Off-Ramp Backup Gets Caltrans’ Attention

Dear Readers:

With 1993 upon us, there’s no shortage of questions posed to our traffic-meisters. So, don those crash helmets, buckle up and don’t forget to signal as we motor, bike, or hoof it into a new year of freeway construction, detours and occasional street follies.

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Dear Street Smart:

It seems to me that the exit ramps off the southbound Interstate 5 at Crown Valley Parkway and Avery Parkway are both poorly designed to handle the volume of traffic that often uses these ramps. Both ramps are much too short. Traffic always backs up at Crown Valley (and often at Avery as well) due to the overloaded exit ramp backing up cars onto the freeway. The No. 3 lane also slows down.

David Kalish, Laguna Niguel

This is a frequently observed problem at several freeway locations during peak hours. And Caltrans is well aware of the situation.

Iris Beyer, a Caltrans operations employee, said the southbound off-ramp to Crown Valley Parkway will be improved as part of a new interchange reconstruction project that will widen the southbound off-ramp and will add one additional lane to the southbound side, reserved for traffic exiting the freeway at Crown Valley.

Construction is to be completed in the 1994-95 fiscal year.

But what about Avery Parkway?

Beyer said Caltrans is not convinced that there’s recurring traffic backup at this location. While conceding that it happens from time to time, Beyer said: “We would like more information on the time of day at which the congestion was observed.”

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Some people commute by bicycle and have their own gripes, as the following letters amply illustrate.

Dear Street Smart:

The bike and walking path along San Juan Creek to Doheny State Beach has been closed so often this year, we in the area are forced to cross at Coast Highway where Del Obispo Street becomes Dana Point Harbor Drive. We are wondering if there couldn’t be a “No Right Turn” sign activated in conjunction with the walk sign. Those drivers from the harbor area are anxious to get going onto Coast Highway south, and they make crossing by foot or bike a test of wills. I’d be surprised if there hasn’t been an accident before this.

Jane Simpson, Dana Point

Caltrans officials said this is more of a law enforcement issue than a design problem. According to the California Vehicle Code, a vehicle making a right turn on a green or red signal shall yield the right of way to other traffic and pedestrians lawfully within the intersection or an adjacent crosswalk. Any driver who does not yield the right of way to pedestrians is violating the law and is subject to a citation.

“Therefore,” Caltrans’ Beyer states, “it is not necessary to install a ‘No Right Turn’ sign in conjunction with the ‘walk’ sign.”

The Sheriff’s Department said it would look into the problem.

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Dear Street Smart:

I’m hoping to be included in your column even though my main means of transportation to and from work is a bicycle. In my commute home from teaching school, I encounter an extremely dangerous situation, just prior to arriving home.

Riding east on Warner Avenue into Fountain Valley, I’ll make a left turn on Magnolia Street. I’ll then cross over the San Diego Freeway and prepare to make a right turn onto Heil Avenue, after crossing over the freeway. In trying to get into the far right lane, where all the bicyclists belong, to make a right turn at Heil and Magnolia, I’ll encounter cars exiting the freeway. Cars going north on the San Diego Freeway and exiting onto Magnolia come to a yield sign. Yield seems to be an unknown term here in Orange County. No one yields to cars or bicycles.

The exit on Magnolia, many years ago, was terminated by a stop sign. Drivers seem to comprehend stop. Perhaps it’s their insurance rates.

Mark Dubourdieu, Fountain Valley

It’s true. Stop signs definitely get more attention.

But Caltrans believes you’re mistaken about the yield sign. Neither a stop sign nor a yield sign has been in place, Caltrans’ Beyer said, since the city of Westminster re-striped Magnolia Street to three lanes. “The re-striping,” Beyer explained, “resulted in a free right turn for the off-ramp traffic. Since the addition of the extra lane on Magnolia and the removal of the stop sign, the accident rate at the off-ramp has been significantly reduced.”

If you still see a sign there, we’d like a safely taken photograph of it. But you raise a good point about motorists’ attitudes toward bicyclists, as well as different traffic signs.