Tossing Cigarettes on Streets Can Mean Fine--No Butts About It

Dear Street Smart:

My biggest pet peeve is people who throw cigarette butts out car windows on the freeway. I’m driving along and suddenly there’s a spray of sparks. It always surprises me.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it causes some accidents at night because of the sudden shower of sparks that come at you.

May Fan

Mission Viejo

People who toss cigarettes out of car windows are akin to litterbugs and can be slapped with a fine of up to $1,000 if they are caught.

State law prohibits anyone, driver or pedestrian, from discarding a lighted or unlighted cigarette on any public or private road.

As with any littering, the mandatory fine for the first conviction is a minimum of $100. A second conviction has a mandatory fine of not less than $500 and a third conviction carries a $750 minimum fine.

So, does the California Highway Patrol really enforce that law? You betcha. In 1993, CHP officers wrote 4,261 tickets for it, agency spokesman Steve Kohler said.

Dear Street Smart:

Here in San Clemente there is a sign problem with an Interstate 5 on-ramp. The Avenida Pico on-ramp to northbound Interstate 5 has two signs that state the lanes are going to end. But both these signs are placed around a blind curve and are very close together at the point where the lanes merge into one.

One or more signs should be visible sooner on this stretch, not where the lanes merge. I had a sports car pass me and its right wheels were off the shoulder of the freeway. He was showing me he could get by me.

I have seen slow trucks on the on-ramp at the merging point that don’t put on their left-turn lights until it’s too late to warn the regular slow lane traffic. I have seen older people and inexperienced drivers caught at that dead-end lane.

How about a warning sign somewhere before, or a flashing yellow light at the curve?

Richard Nelson

San Clemente

Based on your letter, Caltrans engineers investigated the Avenida Pico on-ramp and agreed with you.

Consequently, Caltrans has ordered a sign installed before the on-ramp curves. Also, it has ordered all of the existing striping to be repainted. Part of the problem, said agency spokeswoman Rose Orem, was the badly faded striping.

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Do you have thoughts on how to spruce up the sound walls on Orange County’s miles of freeways? Maybe your ideas could transform these nondescript concrete canvases into ways of attracting additional business and tourism.

The Orange County Transportation Authority and Caltrans are sponsoring two community workshops to gather ideas on how to enhance the appearance of freeways and other transportation corridors. Landscaping, public art and alternative aesthetic designs will be explored.

The first workshop will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at OCTA’s administrative offices, 600 S. Main St., Orange. The second workshop will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Irvine City Hall, 1 Civic Center Plaza.

Ideas shared at these workshops will be incorporated into the Transportation Aesthetics Master Plan being prepared by OCTA. For more information about the workshops, call Ginger Cox, OCTA’s aesthetics master plan project manager, at (714) 560-5743.

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The Aliso Creek pedestrian and bike path near Interstate 5 will be closed and have a detour at times from now through May, 1995. The path most likely will be affected near Interstate 5 between Los Alisos Boulevard and Alicia Parkway near Sycamore Park, and beneath Interstate 5 through Paseo de Valencia.

The Aliso Creek bridge is being altered to accommodate the Interstate 5 widening from Pacific Coast Highway to the El Toro “Y” interchange. The project is expected to be completed in 1996.

Detour signs for the path will be posted. For more information, call the construction hot line at (714) 724-2077.