Cure in Offing for Those Who Don’t Know Which Way to Turn

Dear Street Smart:

I have a suggestion for the Lake Forest exit off the Santa Ana Freeway. There are four lanes at the intersection. The two left lanes must turn left, the right lane must turn right and the lane second from the right has the option to go left or straight onto Avenida de la Carlota.

The problem is that people drive straight in the second-from-left lane and others from the right turn only lane. There are some painted lines to force you to go left or right, but I believe they should put in some “Botts Dots.”

Rene Valentijn, Rancho Santa Margarita

Recent resurfacing and road repair has obscured the striping for turn lanes at the Lake Forest off-ramp intersection, said Moon Kim of Caltrans traffic operations. A field investigation concluded that re-striping of the area was needed, he said.

Caltrans has submitted a request for re-striping and defining turn lane delineations by using “cat track” striping rather than Botts Dots, Kim said. Cat track striping is a dashed line delineating lanes, he said.

In addition, the existing crosswalk and arrows will be re-striped, Moon said.

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Dear Street Smart:

After months of inconvenience and certainly millions of dollars, the widening of Victoria Street starting at Brookhurst in Huntington Beach and traveling east through Costa Mesa to Harbor Boulevard makes it look like a speedy thoroughfare.

Forget it. Because of traffic lights triggered by cross-traffic, the east/west flow is almost as bad as it was before construction.

I travel Victoria daily and I’m amazed that time after time I and many other cars traveling alongside me are stopped, light after light, by just one cross-traffic car.

Sometimes these cross-traffic cars are waiting to pull out to join our flow, but they still trigger the light against east and west flow.

I recall reading that the improvement to Victoria would help to reduce cross-town traffic on Adams Avenue and also Pacific Coast Highway.

You can forget that, too. Most of my neighbors have given up on Victoria and are back to Adams or PCH. Victoria only works at 2 a.m. when there’s hardly any traffic.

Dick Stanton, Huntington Beach

It will be fixed! By the end of September, 1993, Victoria’s uncoordinated signals should be a thing of the past and smooth sailing should commence, said Chandra Shaker, associate traffic engineer for Costa Mesa.

The cause of your stop-and-go commute is a new traffic signal that is being installed on Victoria Street at American Avenue, Shaker said.

This traffic signal will serve the new Victoria Elementary School that opens next month.

During installation of this new signal, an “interconnection system” had to be dismantled, subsequently making all the other traffic signals on Victoria Street uncoordinated, Shaker said.

The new signal is expected to working by the time school opens, Shaker said. When that happens, coordinated signals can be established, he said.

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Time is running short to register for the new door-to-door van service offered for people with disabilities.

Beginning Oct. 1, OCTA ACCESS offered by the Orange County Transportation Authority will be available only to qualified registrants.

Any current or would-be user should apply by Sept. 1.

The service is available to those who are unable to ride regular, fixed-route buses.

Drivers assist passengers at their doors, on and off the van, and to the door of their destination. For information, call 1-800-564-4232.