New Column Will Seek to Steer Readers Clear of Traffic Woes

The traffic signal near your Ventura office seems to take 10 minutes to turn green. Then it lets just two cars through the intersection.

The fast lane on the nearest highway has been closed for repairs since Easter. At the rate the road crew is working, it looks as if it won’t reopen until Christmas.

You’ve driven across the county to save $10 on a fancy new 50-speed blender. Now there’s just one problem: how to find your way out of a shopping center parking lot that looks like a gigantic maze for lab rats.

Let’s face it: Traffic triggers plenty of headaches in Ventura County.

And with 475,000 licensed drivers and more than 532,000 registered vehicles in the county, just about everybody contracts a case of asphalt agony at one time or another.

To steer a little relief into your driving day, Street Smart has arrived.

This column, appearing Mondays in The Times Ventura County Edition, will answer the nagging questions that bob through your brain when you’re stuck on a local freeway or caught at a crowded corner during rush hour:

When will this road work be finished?

That motorcyclist who’s cutting between cars--is he breaking the law?

Is it legal for that pickup driver to be carrying his dog in the rear truck bed? Is is OK to carry your kids back there?

To answer such questions, Street Smart will talk to police officers, Caltrans, city traffic officials and other experts.

Maybe your traffic woes aren’t tied to a highway. Maybe your city’s streets have given you the blacktop blues. If it seems like a nasty virus has infected the computer that runs the synchronized traffic lights in your town, Street Smart will see if a cure is on the horizon.

Because some residents rely on trains, buses and bikes, Street Smart will occasionally take a detour to answer questions about getting around without a car:

Will the Metrolink trains tying east Ventura County to Los Angeles ever start running on weekends? Will the light rail system proposed for Ventura and Oxnard be built before today’s kindergartners finish college? Will you ever be able to ride a bus from Thousand Oaks to Moorpark?

But because most of you are not willing or able to turn in your steel-belted radials, Street Smart will stick mainly to matters of the wide open road. And some roads that are not so wide open.

Ventura County may seem like a quiet suburban area where rolling farmland and scenic open spaces abound. People moved here to escape the traffic jams that have become a fact of life in much of Los Angeles.

But in recent years, more and more of Ventura County’s highways and city streets have begun to resemble the clogged arteries of its western neighbor.

Consider these numbers:

* Ventura County has 86 miles of freeway.

* On average, more than 160,000 vehicles a day travel the Ventura Freeway near the Moorpark Freeway junction in Thousand Oaks.

* Up to 100,000 vehicles per day cruise along California 118 near Kuehner Drive in Simi Valley.

* In Oxnard, about 34,000 vehicles a day ride along Ventura Road near Channel Islands Boulevard.

With that sort of traffic out there, Street Smart can’t promise to put you on the highway to heaven. But maybe it can help make those mean streets look a little more friendly.

Even if you don’t have a traffic gripe or a safety question, you might want to send this column a note about Ventura County driving shortcuts, commuter survival tips or scenic--or perhaps revolting--roadside views.

Write to Street Smart, The Times Ventura County Edition, 5200 Valentine Road, Suite 140, Ventura 93003. You may enclose a simple sketch if it will help Street Smart understand your traffic question. Or call our Sound Off Line, 658-5546. Whether writing or calling, include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. No anonymous queries will be accepted, and letters are subject to editing.