Others Fear Crime, but Traffic Bothers Newport Folk the Most : Concerns: Congestion ties with government as community’s main drawback. Trailing behind are worries over growth, drug or alcohol abuse and gangs.

Cars may creep along Coast Highway in Corona del Mar and stack up on Balboa Peninsula, but the traffic engineer for Newport Beach will tell you it’s not the problem everybody thinks it is.

“Right now, in terms of real traffic congestion, we have very little on a day-to-day basis,” said Richard Edmonston. “Sure there’s summer on the peninsula and too much or too-fast traffic in residential neighborhoods, but compared to cities like Anaheim and Santa Ana, we’re doing real well.”

Well, not according to some of the people who live there.

Nearly one in four respondents to a recent Times Orange County Poll by Mark Baldassare & Associates listed traffic as the top problem in the city, tied with those who think city government is the biggest headache.

Nearly half of the city’s residents said traffic is a big problem and three out of four classify it either as a serious problem or somewhat of a problem. Just 10% say it is no problem at all.

Countywide, meanwhile, traffic is no longer the most important problem, according to the 1992 Orange County Annual Survey of 1,000 adults throughout the county. Between 1985 and 1991, the UCI telephone poll consistently found traffic to be residents’ top concern.

Last year, as a result of the lengthy recession, traffic slipped into third place behind worries about the economy and crime. But still, among the most affluent residents, traffic remained the No. 1 problem.

“It’s a luxury to be concerned about traffic,” said Cheryl Katz, a co-director of the Times Orange County Poll as well as the Orange County Annual Survey of county residents. “It reflects the relative safety from crime and fear of job loss.”

In The Times’ recent poll of Newport Beach residents, concern over traffic far overshadowed unhappiness with growth and development, drug or alcohol abuse and gangs or youth delinquency.

Barbara Van Hoven, a poll respondent who said traffic and growth are “big problems” in the city, called the situation “frightening.”

“Living in Corona del Mar, you really plan your life not only by the months of the year but the time of the day,” she said, remembering accidents in recent months when Coast Highway was blocked for hours. “The traffic is so heavy and poorly controlled; it’s just getting worse day by day.”

An environmentalist who belongs to the Newport Conservancy and Stop Polluting Our Newport, Van Hoven believes the opening of the proposed San Joaquin Hills tollway will make matters worse because new houses will be built.

The toll road is to have interchanges in Newport Beach at Ford Road, Pelican Hill Road and Bison Avenue, and it is planned to connect to MacArthur Boulevard. Environmental groups are fighting construction of the massive tollway, arguing that the six-lane roadway will destroy the habitat for the gnatcatcher, a tiny songbird.

But even the San Joaquin Hills tollway won’t relieve congestion for much of the peninsula, where summer traffic can be unbearable.

Jane Elliott, who owns and operates a flower shop on 31st Street, says that although she complains about traffic, she doesn’t think there’s much more that can be done beyond widening Balboa Boulevard.

“We need an alternate route to and from the beach,” Elliott said, adding that she is at a loss for suggestions about improving the area.

Edmonston said improvements to the problems on Pacific Coast Highway also face opposition from residents of the Corona del Mar section of Newport Beach. City officials still hope, however, to someday widen Coast Highway from four to six lanes between Newport Boulevard and Dover Drive.

Traffic Trouble

Asked to rate four issues as problems, residents say traffic congestion is the worst.

Don’t Big Some Small None know Traffic congestion 46% 29% 14% 10% 1% Too much growth/development 32% 28% 15% 22% 3% Drug and alcohol abuse 23% 34% 19% 9% 15% Gangs and youth delinquency 8% 26% 31% 26% 9%

Source: Times Orange County Poll