Dear Street Smart: Traditionally, “big rig” trucks...

Dear Street Smart: Traditionally, “big rig” trucks occupied the extreme right-hand (“slow”) lane on the freeways.

However, in recent years it appears that these trucks have moved to the second lane from the right, effectively creating a second slow lane.

Why the change?

Peter C. Bronson, Tarzana

Dear Reader: Blame it (as with everything else, it seems) on your elected officials.

More than a decade ago, state lawmakers amended the California Vehicle Code (Section 21655) to allow tractor-trailers to use the two right-hand lanes for travel on a highway with at least four lanes in one direction.

For highways with three or fewer lanes, the big rigs must stay in the far right lane and use the second right-hand lane only to pass, says California Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Ernie Garcia.

Garcia doesn’t remember why the Legislature made the change. But Larry Blood of the California Trucking Assn. in Sacramento says it was probably the result of pressure from the trucking industry.

“To be able to maneuver in two lanes on a four-lane highway is not unreasonable,” Blood says.

And to hear him tell it, even two lanes aren’t enough for some big-rig drivers.

“They always want more,” he says.

*

Dear Street Smart: What is the speed limit on unposted secondary roads, such as Angeles Forest Highway? I know it is either 50 or 55 m.p.h., but I have looked in two old drivers’ handbooks from the California Department of Motor Vehicles and cannot find any mention of it.

Also, is there any standard for the smoothness of pavement after a repaving? A major portion of Big Tujunga Canyon Road north of Sunland, between Angeles Forest Highway and Mount Gleason Avenue, is being repaved. I had thought that workers were just putting down a rough intermediate layer of tar until the final stripes were painted on, but it has remained rough.

This is the roughest newly paved road I have ever driven on anywhere in the world, and I find it hard to believe that federal, state or even city standards would permit the contractor to do such a poor job.

J. Thomas Lawry, Tujunga

Dear Reader: To tackle your second question first:

The county--not the feds, the state or the city--is in charge of that stretch of Big Tujunga Canyon Road, and not only do they permit the contractor to do such a poor job, they want it that way.

Unlike regular paving projects, where workers iron out a road that’s become uneven, the reverse holds true here: Workers roughen a road that’s worn smooth. The idea is to provide more tire traction along such a curvy mountain road.

“This is what we call a slurry-seal project,” says Donna Guyovich, a spokeswoman for the county Department of Public Works. “It’s a process whereby chips of material are put into road-surfacing. Especially for mountain roads, this rough surface is specifically done to avoid slippage, to have better tire traction.”

Eligible roads receive the slurry-seal treatment about once every five years.

Guyovich says that the project is almost complete along the 9.5-mile stretch of Big Tujunga Canyon Road from Angeles Forest Highway to the Los Angeles city boundary, just north of Mount Gleason Avenue. Only some cleanup and final striping remain.

As for your first question, CHP Officer Rhett Price informs us that you can zip along at speeds up to 55 m.p.h. on Angeles Forest Highway (which is also a county road).

But of course, the basic speed law--drive only at the speed at which it is safe--takes precedence.