Waiting Is the Only Way to Deal With Slow Walk Signal
Dear Street Smart:
I’m a patient person, but even I get frustrated with the walk signal on Loma Vista Road when I want to get to the Ventura County Medical Center.
If you want to cross the street, you have to push the button and wait. And wait. And wait.
It takes forever for that light to change. Most times, I end up just taking my chances with the speeding traffic and cross on red.
Why does it take so long to get a walk light? Can anything be done to speed things up?
Paula Richardson, Ventura
Dear Reader:
Sorry, you’ll just have to wait.
It may seem unfair, but button-activated walk signals are designed to defer to heavy traffic, Ventura Associate Traffic Engineer Robert Yalda says.
When the walk button is pushed, it sends a message to a series of loops buried beneath the roadway. The command to activate the walk sign doesn’t kick in until there is a break in traffic.
That means the more traffic there is, the longer you have to wait.
And it doesn’t do any good to take out your frustration by leaning on the signal button, Yalda says.
“One push of the button has the same effect as 10,” Yalda said. “If people keep pressing the button, it’s just going to break.”
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Dear Street Smart:
Ever since the link between the Moorpark and Simi Valley freeways opened, traffic on Los Angeles Avenue in Moorpark has gone down considerably.
But a red left-turn arrow at the intersection of Los Angeles and Condor Drive does not reflect that change.
The arrow for cars turning east onto Condor stays red for most of the green light time for Los Angeles.
Due to the reduced traffic on Los Angeles, very few cars are crossing this intersection going north.
Can the red arrow be eliminated to allow cars to turn left when the light is green?
This would remove long, unneeded waits at the intersection.
Ronald Kessler, North Hollywood
Dear Reader:
The Moorpark public works director agrees that the red left-turn arrow at Condor and Los Angeles is unnecessary.
But the state Department of Transportation doesn’t, and it gets final say at this intersection.
Acting on complaints from people who are forced to wait through the red arrow although there is very little traffic, Public Works Director Ken Gilbert sent a letter to Caltrans asking that the arrow be removed.
Caltrans Senior Engineer Peter Wong wrote back to Gilbert and rejected the request. Wong said the red arrow helps traffic move more efficiently at the intersection.
Wong also said that intersections with red arrows like the one at Condor and Los Angeles are less accident-prone than those without the arrows.
However, Wong did say the timing has recently been adjusted on the signal “to minimize minor inconveniences to the motorists.”
He also said Caltrans will keep a close eye on the intersection and make further changes when it feels that they are necessary.
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Dear Street Smart:
There’s a sign problem on the Moorpark Freeway that causes confusion.
Right where the Moorpark Freeway meets the Ventura Freeway, it splits off and two lanes go to the left toward Los Angeles and two to the right, toward Ventura.
The problem is that the two lanes going to the right quickly merge into one lane. But there is only one sign, on the right-hand side, indicating that the two lanes are merging into one.
I have seen some close calls as drivers in the left lane suddenly realize that they have to merge.
This problem could be solved by adding a second sign on the left side of the road.
Is this possible?
Michael Schmitt, Thousand Oaks
Dear Reader:
How about a second lane instead?
In response to a request from the city of Thousand Oaks two years ago, Caltrans has been working on plans to do away with the merge and keep two lanes all the way from the Moorpark Freeway to the Ventura Freeway, Caltrans Traffic Engineer Bob Houle says.
Exactly when the second lane will be added is not clear, Houle says.
In the meantime, Caltrans will probably not add a merge sign on the left side of the freeway because it might confuse motorists splitting off toward Los Angeles, Caltrans Engineer Tony Colella says.
If drivers act with caution and pay attention to the road ahead of them, they should not have any problems noticing that it is getting narrower, Colella says.
Nonetheless, Colella says he will check out the area to see if another sign can be added until the second lane is put in.
