Project Underway to Fix Dangerous Off-Ramp Merge

Dear Street Smart:

Now that the southbound Costa Mesa Freeway has been opened beyond the Victoria Street exit, traffic no longer backs up at that point. Consequently, vehicles exiting come up the off-ramp at a higher, though not illegal, rate of speed.

At the top of that off-ramp, a single lane merges into traffic from the right. (I’m assuming this lane is considered part of Newport Boulevard.) Traffic for that lane has a yield sign, which is ignored by all. More than once I’ve had to swerve while coming up the off-ramp because traffic from this single lane is merging without so much as a look to see if the move is safe. The last straw was two weeks ago when a Costa Mesa police car nearly took off my fender as it slid into my lane without slowing down.

I think a stop sign is in order for this lane, and it should be posted on both sides of the lane because people are merging to the left and not looking to the right, where the sign is currently posted.

Kay Romer

Huntington Beach

The hazardous merge at the Victoria Street off-ramp is being corrected, said Gary Slater, chief of traffic operations south for Caltrans. Caltrans installed the yield sign when southbound Costa Mesa Freeway ended at this location. The freeway has since been extended to 19th Street, Slater said.

The city of Costa Mesa plans to modify this location, creating two lanes of traffic from Newport Boulevard instead of the one lane that exists today, Slater said. The final alignment will be four lanes--two lanes from Newport Boulevard and two from the freeway off-ramp. When this is completed, the merge and yield sign will be eliminated.

Construction began Jan. 4, and the project is expected to be completed by July, Slater said.

Dear Street Smart:

I asked this question last year and I would like an update. Why has Caltrans not opened a car-pool lane westbound on the Artesia Freeway? The eastbound freeway has had a car-pool lane for the last few years and seems to be appreciated by many car-poolers every day.

Bac Nguyen

Fullerton

You may have noticed that construction began late last summer on a car-pool lane for westbound traffic on the Artesia Freeway. The stretch from the San Gabriel River Freeway to the Harbor Freeway should be completed next month, Caltrans spokesman Russell Snyder said. Once this project is completed, car-pool lanes will run virtually uninterrupted to the Los Angeles County line, he said.

Dear Street Smart:

I’m writing about the car-pool lane on the Costa Mesa Freeway going north from the Santa Ana Freeway almost to the Garden Grove Freeway, a stretch I travel between 7:15 and 8:30 a.m. every Friday. I always travel in the lane next to the car-pool lane and for amusement, I observe the car-pool traffic.

On ordinary days, I count at least two out of five cars in the “pool” lane that have a single occupant. On rainy days, the ratio jumps to four out of six motorists traveling solo in that lane. In the last year and a half, I have never seen a CHP officer or any police in that lane. Thirty minutes on any such morning along that stretch by three CHP officers would enable them to stop enough scofflaws to pay their salaries for a whole weekend. What’s the problem?

Arthur Schwartz

Laguna Hills

Whatever their reasons for doing it, car-pool lane violators flirt with the very real danger of being slapped with a stiff fine. Many car-pool lanes even have overhead signs spelling out the penalty.

First-time violators can receive a minimum fine of $271, said Officer Angel Johnson, a CHP spokeswoman in Santa Ana. Fines increase to a minimum $400 for a second offense and a minimum $600 for a third offense. Habitual offenders run the risk of having their driver’s license suspended by the Department of Motor Vehicles, Johnson said.

The CHP does not, however, rely on the threat of financial penalties, or even the honor system, to keep motorists in their proper lane. Special patrols, usually working extended shifts, are used every day to combat car-pool lane violators, Johnson said.

Two officers are assigned from 6 to 10 a.m. and from 2 to 6 p.m. every day to patrol nothing but the car-pool lanes on the Costa Mesa Freeway and issue citations to violators, Johnson said. Barring any emergency that would pull them off their beat, these officers rotate their patrols daily to keep motorists guessing where they might crop up next, Johnson said.

As you pointed out, the incentive to adhere to the law diminishes without a CHP presence. Conversely, motorists rarely flaunt the law when they see a black and white patrol car, Johnson said.

Johnson said she has not noticed an increase in car-pool lane violations in the area you cited. However, on the strength of your letter to Street Smart, Johnson said she has initiated more car-pool lane patrol for that area.