Letter Leads to New Signs on University for MacArthur Approach

Dear Street Smart:

The small signs marking entry onto MacArthur Boulevard from University Drive are totally inadequate for both north and southbound traffic. The signs are placed too close to their respective ramps to give enough advance notice of the imminent turnoff, and they are not clearly legible even at close range.

Since these signs are markers for a major artery, they should be made twice their present size, in a more visible color, and be placed well ahead in the path of approach--with an additional arrow at the entrance of each ramp--for the benefit of drivers who are unfamiliar with this route.

Carol Benedicktus

San Clemente

On the strength of your letter, Irvine’s traffic engineers checked out the signs on University Drive at MacArthur Boulevard. Investigators agreed with your assessment that advance signs are needed on University Drive and that the lettering on one of the existing signs is small.

A work order has been submitted and new advance signs alerting drivers to the MacArthur Boulevard approach will be erected within the next two months, said Bonnie Burton, senior transportation analyst for Irvine. Burton’s department also contacted Newport Beach’s traffic engineering department and they agreed to install advance signs in their right-of-way for southbound MacArthur Boulevard, Burton said.

There’s no denying that the lettering is small on the sign that reads “MacArthur northbound.” Again, you were correct in assuming that the letters are half the size of other street name signs around the city. But there are no plans to change it, Burton said.

The actual sign meets Irvine’s standards for the size of street name signs, Burton said. Its lettering is smaller to fit in all the essential wording.

On most street name signs in the city, the last name of the street is omitted to make the lettering as large as possible, Burton said. For example, instead of “Culver Drive” the sign simply reads “Culver.”

But if “northbound” were dropped from the MacArthur sign, drivers might go south, Burton said.

Dear Street Smart:

I have been a resident of Orange County for 15 years and a commuting resident for six years. I would like to take this opportunity to point out two particular traffic intersection lights that make commuting unnecessarily stressful and long for everyone.

Whether traveling north or south on Culver Drive in Irvine, the traffic lights at the intersections of Culver and Irvine Center Drive and Culver and Deerfield Avenue are of an incredibly long duration.

These streets (Irvine Center Drive and Deerfield Avenue) that run perpendicular to Culver have traffic lights that change when there is absolutely no one waiting to cross Culver.

The flashing walk signal will also change, thus making the wait to continue down Culver even longer when there is no one waiting. Whether it is the middle of the day or at 2 a.m., these lights will change for an extended period of time even when no one is waiting at the lights.

I realize that with the addition of the Irvine Ranch Market there are more people in that shopping center, and with the construction on Culver that these may be the reasons why these lights change with the frequency that they do. I also realize that technology is available to adjust the timers at these lights and I would recommend that a review be done to alter these two particular ones.

While construction is going on, there is no sense in making commuting more difficult than it needs to be.

Whitney Amspacher

Irvine

Yours is not the only letter Street Smart has received recently about the signal coordination at these two intersections. And if you are looking for some relief because the surrounding construction is so stressful, keep looking. It’s the construction that’s causing the problems.

Wiring that connects the traffic signals had to be dismantled just north of Deerfield and Culver, making it impossible for traffic engineers to coordinate the traffic signals on Culver in that area, said Bonnie Burton of Irvine’s traffic engineering department. The only part of Culver Drive that has signal coordination is between Deerfield to the south and Walnut Avenue to the north, she said.

What also must be remembered is that these are big intersections, with six through lanes, three right-turn lanes and dual left lanes in each direction, Burton said. Pedestrians must have time to cross all that.