Drivers’ Courtesy Is Key, CHP Says, to a Smooth Freeway Entry

Dear Street Smart:

We recently returned from a three-month trip pulling our trailer, visiting 27 states. In almost every state we drove through, there were “yield” signs posted at every on-ramp. Since we drive in the outside lane, we were able to keep a steady speed as the cars entering the freeway waited until we had passed before pulling in behind us.

Then we came home to California!

We constantly had to use our brakes to avoid cars barreling onto the freeway in front of us, seemingly unable to notice more than 40 feet of van and trailer. As a result, we drove in the third lane most of the time. It seems to me that California law requires a car entering the freeway to yield until it is safe to enter.

Am I right? Or do we need “yield” signs posted on all the freeways in California?

Virginia W. Severs, San Clemente

California law does require traffic entering the freeway to yield to traffic, according to Steve Kohler, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol. Yielding usually does not mean stopping. Rather, it means slowing or speeding to merge with traffic, he said.

“An on-ramp is designed to allow you to get up to freeway speed so you can merge with the traffic rather than impede it,” Kohler said. “What we’re talking about is the idea of courtesy; if you see someone whose right-of-way you’re going to interfere with, you want to allow them to proceed. If I see a trailer going faster than me, in other words, it would seem foolish to enter in front of it.”

By the same token, he said, courtesy should flow the other way as well. Thus if you are driving on the outside lane and see someone coming up on the ramp, you might consider modifying your speed or changing lanes to help them enter the freeway.

“There should be common courtesy in both directions,” Kohler said. “If people did both of these things, it would be a lot nicer out there.”

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Dear Street Smart:

Do you know if there are any plans to make Jeffrey Road/University Drive in Irvine a “Smart Street”? When I say Smart Street, I am referring to a street that has all the traffic lights synchronized to minimize stops for cars traveling at the posted speed limit. I have been using the Foothill Transportation Corridor that runs from Portola Parkway to Jeffrey for my commute to UCI. Using the tollway has saved me some commute time, but I feel that I lose all my time savings when I have to stop at most of the signals on Jeffrey/University. I feel there is a need for an efficient artery that will move traffic east and west across major freeways such as the San Diego and Santa Ana freeways.

Glen Profeta, Rancho Santa Margarita

Unfortunately, according to John Standiford, a spokesman for the Orange County Transportation Authority, Jeffrey Road/University Drive is not included on the county’s list of future Smart Streets, although Irvine city officials say they are planning some improvements of their own for the street.

The county’s four designated Smart Streets were chosen on the basis of traffic volume, Standiford said. Each is used as a major transportation corridor.

“The volume of traffic on Jeffrey Road/University Drive is not that high,” he said.

The four streets destined for improvements are Beach Boulevard, Katella Avenue, Imperial Highway and Moulton Parkway. While work is almost complete on Beach Boulevard, Standiford said, it is in the planning stages for Katella Avenue and Imperial Highway and still in the future for Moulton Parkway.

Frequenters of Jeffrey Road/University Drive need not despair, however; Irvine city planners say that they intend to synchronize most of the street’s traffic signals within the next year.

Work on the street’s lights between Irvine Boulevard and Irvine Center Drive should be completed by the end of the year, said Bonnie Burton, a senior transportation analyst for the city. And work between Barranca Parkway and Culver Drive, she said, should be completed by mid-1995.

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The California Highway Patrol, responding to an item in last week’s Street Smart column, said it is never permissible to cross a solid double yellow line or a double-double yellow line to enter or exit the diamond lane. To do so is a moving violation punishable by a $271 fine, said CHP spokeswoman Angel Johnson. The reason both types of markings still exist on the freeway, she said, has to do with a 1987 change in the Vehicle Code requiring commuter lanes to be set apart from adjacent lanes by four-foot buffer zones. On some freeways constructed earlier, most notably the Costa Mesa Freeway, insufficient space existed for the buffer zone; hence the remaining use of the single set of solid double lines.