Dear Street Smart:I have just returned from...

Dear Street Smart:

I have just returned from a driving trip to the East Coast. Exits, we found, were numbered in addition to being named. It was very easy to follow maps and find proper off-ramps.

Can we expect this improvement on California signs on interstate freeways?

Virginia Barrett, North Hollywood

Dear Reader:

Yes, you can expect exits on California interstate freeways to be numbered in the future--but don’t hold your breath.

Because numbering the exits would require a complete overhaul of Caltrans’ internal system of marking freeways with “post miles” county by county, the primary issue is money.

“All our records are based on the system we set up 60 years ago,” says Jim Drago in Caltrans’ Sacramento office. “If we were to change, it would involve a total revamping of our record-keeping and everything that would potentially cost many millions of dollars.”

So the project is on hold until money for a system overhaul is available, which will probably be when the federal government provides the cash needed for state transportation agencies to go metric, as the feds have pushed for years. Once that comes through--which Drago predicts won’t be earlier than 1996--Caltrans can convert to metrics and also adopt the federal post-mile system, which would allow it to start numbering freeway exits.

Interestingly, however, the state has made one previous attempt at exit-numbering, and in our own back yard here in Los Angeles, to boot.

Back in the 1970s, as an experiment, the California Department of Transportation numbered the exits on Interstate 10 from Santa Monica to San Bernardino. The exits were numbered west to east. If you look closely as you drive down the Santa Monica Freeway today, you can still spot some exit signs with numbers over them.

But public indifference and some hostility led officials to scrap the project.

“We basically received no positive reaction,” Drago said. “What little reaction we got was unfavorable.”

And anyway, Drago himself is slightly skeptical about the benefits of numbering exits.

“What’s the difference between saying, ‘Get off at Exit 60’ and ‘Get off at the Euclid Avenue exit’?” he asks. “Is someone going to remember the number more than the name?”

Your opinion, readers?

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Dear Street Smart:

Can you please tell me why the on-ramp to the southbound Golden State Freeway at Roxford Street in Sylmar was originally closed and when, if ever, it will be reopened? There are many commuters who work in this area who are inconvenienced by this closure.

Stephen Adney, Sherman Oaks

Dear Reader:

Pat Reid, a spokeswoman for Caltrans, says the on-ramp was closed after the Northridge earthquake to make room for a bypass route that starts at the Golden State-Antelope Valley Freeway interchange a few miles to the north.

Because of earthquake damage, commuters must exit the Antelope Valley Freeway onto Sierra Highway before the interchange. The detour continues along San Fernando Road, then Sepulveda Boulevard, paralleling the Golden State down to Roxford.

At Roxford, the bypass route connects to the southbound Golden State. To do this, however, Caltrans has closed off the regular Roxford Street freeway entrance.

Reid says the on-ramp will reopen once key parts of the interchange reconstruction are complete, probably at the end of July.

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Dear Street Smart:

Please explain the reasoning behind placing the traffic signal triggering devices within the crosswalk lines. On Yolanda Avenue at both the signals on Nordhoff and Plummer streets, this is where they are.

Cars have to edge forward into the crosswalk to trip the sensors, blocking the vision for drivers trying to turn right. What is the logic in this?

Cynthia Faulkner, Northridge

Dear Reader:

This is a classic example of the evils of impatience.

According to city traffic engineer Brian Gallagher, there are two traffic sensors cut into the asphalt at those intersections, one inside the crosswalk and one before the crosswalk line. The two are linked, so inching into the crosswalk to trip the second sensor--as impatient motorists do to try to change the signal faster--is unnecessary and only blocks the vision of drivers waiting to turn right.

But if that’s the case, you might ask why engineers even bother to install a second sensor in the crosswalk at all. Why not just bury a sensor, technically called a “loop detector,” before the crosswalk and leave it at that?

The answer traces back to human frailty again.

Even though state law demands that we stop our cars before the crosswalk at a red light, few of us can claim never to have broken that rule. So engineers put a second sensor in the crosswalk for those who exceed the line.

“We design for reality,” Gallagher says. “We put our detectors where cars are most likely to stop.”

This is not to cater to rule-breakers but to avoid greater dangers. It’s possible that a small car could pass the first sensor altogether and stop within the crosswalk. Without a second sensor, the light would stay red, and crossing pedestrians would be forced to walk around the car into potentially busy traffic.