Relief In Sight for Congested Thousand Oaks Intersection

Dear Street Smart:

I can’t believe there is still no signal installed at Avenida de los Arboles and Erbes Road in Thousand Oaks.

The traffic at that corner has increased tremendously since Westlake Boulevard was put through to connect with Avenida de los Arboles.

So many people use it to avoid the rush-hour jams on the Moorpark Freeway.

Is a signal scheduled any time soon at this intersection?

Carolyn Meyer

Thousand Oaks

Dear Reader:

Your timing is just about perfect. In a few weeks, this very question will be placed in the hands of the Thousand Oaks City Council.

On Nov. 2, the council will review a two-year proposed budget that will include some traffic relief projects. John Clement, the city’s public works director, says a new signal at Avenida de los Arboles and Erbes will be among the top priorities on his list.

He agrees that this intersection has become more congested in recent years because more houses and stores have been built in this section of the city.

Today, there’s a four-way stop at the corner. But Clement says, “It’s not operating very smoothly at all.”

One problem is the width of this intersection. Avenida de los Arboles has six lanes and Erbes Road has four.

That means quite a few cars can be lined up at rush hour. And sometimes, no one is sure who should move first. “Everybody’s trying to be so courteous that everybody’s waiting too long,” Clement says.

This could be remedied by next summer if the City Council approves the proposed traffic signal.

In the meantime, Clement says drivers should follow this rule of thumb at four-way stops: The driver who arrives first should move through the intersection first; if it’s a tie, the driver on the right goes first.

Dear Street Smart:

I ride a motorcycle. Occasionally, I pull up to a traffic light that never seems to notice I’m there--even if I position my motorcycle right in the center of what looks like the detector, buried in the asphalt.

The traffic signal at the intersection of Hueneme Road and Raytheon Road, just east of Oxnard, is especially bad.

I ride north on California 1 and take the Hueneme Road exit, which puts me on Raytheon. I take Raytheon north and pull into the left-turn pocket at Hueneme.

Sometimes, I’ll just sit there forever, with the light never changing. If I pull into this pocket in my car, the light changes within a few seconds.

What causes this? And where is the best place to stop at these “insensitive” lights?

Christopher Kelly

Port Hueneme

Dear Reader:

Your guess was correct. The best place for a motorcyclist to trigger a traffic signal is right on top of the detector loop. This wire can often be seen, it rests right beneath the surface of the pavement.

At Hueneme and Raytheon, the trouble is almost certainly with the detector. It tells the traffic signal that someone is waiting to make a left turn. The signal then provides a green arrow.

In years gone by, these detectors were activated by the weight of a vehicle.

Today, traffic engineers use a device that is more high-tech and usually more effective. These units are activated when metallic objects going over the detector cause a change in the magnetic field.

But these devices are not infallible. Bicycles and small motorcycles just won’t trip some detectors.

On a happy note, however, the sensitivity of these devices can be changed.

The traffic light you mentioned belongs to the county. Butch Britt, the county’s deputy public works director, says he’ll send someone out in the next week or two to adjust this detector so that a motorcycle is more likely to activate it, if that’s the repair that’s needed.

“We’ll have a work order issued to check it out,” Britt promises.

Dear Street Smart:

I live near the corner of Johnson Drive and Telephone Road in the city of Ventura.

My driving approach is on Johnson, and I think the green light for the cross-traffic on Telephone is much too long. It’s about 1 1/4 minutes.

For a good part of that time, I’m often waiting to get a green light on Johnson.

There just isn’t that much traffic on Telephone, and we often sit there with no cars crossing the intersection in front of us. I would imagine that all of the idling cars on Johnson are adding to the air pollution.

Sometimes, the line in the left-turn lane extends into a through-traffic lane.

I would appreciate it if the green light for the traffic on Telephone was reduced in time.

Patricia Kinsella

Ventura

Dear Reader:

Unfortunately, you happen to be hitting the wrong side of a synchronized traffic signal.

Many signals work on a demand basis. In other words, sensors in the street detect a backup of cars and switch the traffic signal accordingly. And if no one is waiting on a side street, the light stays green on the main road.

But the lights along Telephone Road are controlled much of the time by a computer. Its program is designed to get drivers through a long series of green lights without stopping.

Ideally, a driver heading east on Telephone at 45 m.p.h. should be able to go from Main Street to Petit Avenue without hitting a single red light, says Nazir Lalani, Ventura’s traffic engineer.

To permit this feat, the city had to set the traffic light sequence on each signal on Telephone to run for the same amount of time--110 seconds--regardless of how many cars are using the street at any one time.

The result is smooth running on Telephone--and occasional backups on the intersecting side streets, such as Johnson.

The cars idling on Johnson may be adding to the air pollution, but those that don’t stop on Telephone are putting fewer particles into the air. So maybe it balances out. Each street carries 21,000 to 25,000 vehicles a day.

Still, some relief is in sight for you.

Soon, Lalani hopes to reprogram some signals on Telephone so that each cycle doesn’t last so long. And by 1995, the city hopes to have a new master computer that will switch the synchronized system off when there are few cars using Telephone and more waiting for a green on the side streets.

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 questions. 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.