Car-Eating Rats? Try Putting Mothballs in Glove Box

As I predicted, the saga of “The Rat That Ate My Car” continues.

You may recall that in a previous column, a reader reported that rats invaded her family’s two Mercedes and made a tres expensive rodent banquet out of the electrical wiring. Since the column ran, several people have weighed in with more stories about those buck-toothed varmints chomping on their car’s innards.

Such as, this one, which suggests a defense:

There is a solution to the problem of rats chewing up the wires of one’s automobile. I encountered a similar problem back East during a very cold winter when field mice took refuge under the hood of my new car. The mechanic who repaired the damage suggested I keep mothballs in the glove compartment. I did, and it worked.

Marilyn Padow, Chatsworth

Interesting! If this works, maybe someone can market them as “Rat Guards.” You can just hang them from your rearview mirror like those Christmas tree-shaped air fresheners.

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Why in the world doesn’t The Times publish the Metrolink schedule? To find out if they’ve added a midmorning train, or anything else, I must go to the station here in Chatsworth and look on a post. It appears that the best kept secret in the Valley is when the train stops here.

Marion Reimbold, Chatsworth

Never let it be said that I shrink from rattling the cages of the high and the mighty to take my readers’ troubles to those who can fix them, even if it means bugging my own employers (bless their career-controlling little hearts).

After bringing your question up to some top editors here at The Times, I was told there is no good reason not to run the schedule. So, thanks to your letter, we will run the schedule from time to time. It will probably appear on page 2 or 3, the Focus pages, of this section, so keep an eye out.

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What is the technical term for the reflectors that divide lanes on the freeway?

Cliff Johnson, North Hollywood

The technical terms are rather dull, but the story behind those freeway reflectors is, I think, pretty fascinating.

For example, the round, white, raised dots that are glued on top of the painted freeway stripes are called Botts’ Dots. These little ceramic dots, which are the size of a cookie, are named after Elbert D. Botts, a senior chemical testing engineer for Caltrans who first came up with the idea of raised pavement markers in 1953. The dots are better than painted stripes because they don’t wear out and they let you know if you have drifted outside of your lane. Today, more than 3 million of these things dot Los Angeles county freeways.

In between the stripes and dots are reflectors. Caltrans superintendent John Janton said they are called “G” markers. (See, I told you the technical names are dull.)

Here is the fascinating part: The reflectors normally appear white. But on certain parts of the roadway, such as off-ramps, they appear to give off a red glow to drivers heading in the wrong direction.

In the median of the freeway are reflectors called “H” markers, which reflect yellow, regardless of which direction you are going.

See? How did you live without knowing this stuff? Can I put my feet up now and have a cool one?

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Have you found rhyme or reason to those on-ramp meter signals? They have one at Lankershim Boulevard coming onto the Hollywood Freeway right by Universal City. At certain times of the day, a lot of people concentrated at jobs in that area use that ramp. When the signal is on (and it doesn’t seem to be under much of a regular schedule), its effect on freeway traffic seems minimal. It probably could be removed.

Michael Peck, North Hollywood

I have always liked those ramp meters because they make me feel like a dragster driver waiting for the starting light to turn green at the racetrack.

But I suspected they have a more practical purpose so I asked Caltrans senior engineer Milton Ikeda about them.

He said that each freeway has a certain capacity and if we exceed that capacity, everything backs up, the way most of the sand in the top of an hourglass just sits there while a small trickle flows out. The meters are used to regulate how many cars get on the freeways, or, as the metaphor goes, how rapidly the sand flows into the bottom of the hourglass.

Although it may seem you waste a lot of time sitting on the ramps waiting to get on the freeway, he said studies show that your overall travel time is reduced because the meter signals keep traffic moving smoothly.

Each meter signal is programmed for day-to-day traffic patterns around that on-ramp. But there is also an overriding program that counts the number of cars on the freeway through sensors in the pavement and adjusts the signal to react to minute-by-minute changes in traffic flow.

Ikeda said Caltrans’ ultimate goal is to place meter signals on every on-ramp in Los Angeles and Ventura counties and connect them all to one central computer. (Imagine the chaos if that computer goes down.)

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My nomination for most witty personalized plate? The profoundly sexist, non-politically correct sentiment on a white Corvette driven by a dynamite blonde woman: “HE PAID.”

Carol Stevens, Reseda

He’s probably still paying.

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Mea culpa: In my last column I erroneously listed Union Pacific as one of the railroads that owns tracks in the San Fernando Valley. In fact, most tracks in the Valley are owned by Southern Pacific railroad. Union Pacific has none in the area, so don’t complain to them about the condition of the crossings.