Some Intersections Put Children at Risk, Readers Say

Dear Street Smart:

I’m concerned about schoolchildren who cross Ralston Street at Sunridge Drive even though there is no marked crosswalk.

It is very dangerous to cross at Sunridge, especially during school hours when there is a lot of traffic.

Is it possible for the city to install a four-way stop sign or a signal light at this intersection, or at least paint a crosswalk?

Karen Sanchez

Ventura

Dear Reader:

The short answer is no, says Ventura transportation engineer Nazir Lalani.

Lalani, who lives in the neighborhood, says he, too, has witnessed speeding cars veering to avoid children meandering through the roadway.

To address the problem, the city recently installed a crosswalk and school crossing signs midway between South Victoria Avenue and Johnson Drive at Robin Avenue, three streets from Sunridge.

A combination of statistics and state regulations rule out installation of another crosswalk, four-way stop or stoplight at Sunridge.

In most cases, intersections with crosswalks are four times as dangerous for pedestrians as those without, Lalani says, because walkers strut boldly into the crosswalk assuming, sometimes incorrectly, that drivers will stop.

A stop sign would not solve the problem either because statistics show that only 10% of motorists would heed the sign on a street with the volume that Ralston handles. And there just isn’t enough traffic to merit another stoplight.

The best advice, Lalani says, is to slow down while driving and tell those kids to use the crosswalk.

Dear Street Smart:

I often see children running across Lynn Road at Capitan Street to reach the Lynn Oaks Park. There are no crosswalks and the vegetation on the divider and a small hill on Lynn Road make it hard to see children crossing.

Does the city of Thousand Oaks have any plans for a four-way stop at this intersection?

Kristine Butcher

Newbury Park

Dear Reader:

Thousand Oaks isn’t planning to put a four-way stop at Capitan, but it is scheduled eventually to install traffic lights at streets on either side.

Within five years lights should be in place at Haigh Road and at Greenmeadow Avenue, Thousand Oaks transportation planner Beth Madnick says.

Traffic isn’t heavy enough to merit a four-way stop and installation of signals falls under the city’s master plan, which requires that lights be at least a quarter of a mile apart.

Since lights are already planned for the surrounding streets, putting a light at Capitan would violate that stipulation.

Dear Street Smart:

I have a concern about bad visibility at a traffic signal in Thousand Oaks. Because of a slight incline in the roadway, a driver turning left from northbound Moorpark Road onto Columbia Road can’t see vehicles coming down the fast lane in the opposite direction.

There was a left-turn arrow that kept this from being a problem, but several months ago the city traffic department deactivated this feature.

The city says there are few accidents at this intersection, but one high-speed broadside because of this visibility problem will be one too many.

Don Volz

Thousand Oaks

Dear Reader:

There is no visibility problem at Moorpark and Columbia, insists Thousand Oaks assistant traffic engineer Jeff Knowles.

In fact, Knowles calls the crossing one of the “best visibility” intersections in the city.

It was that assessment that led Knowles to cover the left-turn arrow six months ago to see if it would help traffic move along more quickly.

A recent study at the intersection showed that removing the arrow cut waits of as long as 45 seconds down to 15. There have been no accidents at the intersection since the arrow was removed, Knowles says.

However, the study that prompted Knowles to cover the arrow also assessed traffic patterns at the rest of Thousand Oaks’ 60 stoplights.

It found six other arrows that could be removed and six intersections that would benefit from installation of arrows--three on Thousand Oaks Blvd.

If signal installation plans proceed on schedule, traffic arrows will be installed at the Thousand Oaks Boulevard intersections by spring.

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.