Caltrans Does Know the Exact Location of Call Boxes

Dear Street Smart:

Recently I called Caltrans to report a sprinkler that was watering the Ventura Freeway instead of the foliage next to it.

I told the person taking my call the exact location: next to a call box whose number I had written down.

This person then told me that Caltrans does not have a map indicating call-box locations.

How can this be?

I know the Highway Patrol has the location of the boxes, so why not Caltrans?

Peter Marshall, Ventura

Dear Reader:

Actually, although the state Department of Transportation is not responsible for maintaining the call boxes, the agency does know where they are.

The county and the cities provide the funding for the call boxes and are responsible for installing and caring for them. Caltrans’ only input is in advising where the boxes should be located.

Each call box is assigned a number, which corresponds with a number that Caltrans uses to indicate post miles along the freeways.

“Obviously, not everybody here is aware that the numbers on the call boxes are the same numbers we use for reference,” said Bob Houle, traffic engineer for Caltrans. “But the fact is, we do know where all the boxes are.”

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Dear Street Smart:

Thank you for your column. It is the first thing I read after the front page.

My problem has to do with the Santa Rosa-Pleasant Valley off-ramp from the eastbound Ventura Freeway. At the top of the ramp, turning left to Santa Rosa Road is a frightening experience.

Whoever painted the lanes seems to have made the turns too sharp. The left-lane car invariably ends up with its front end projecting into the second lane. To avoid a collision, the second-lane car is forced into an unmarked third lane.

There must be a better way of angling the lanes at the turn, so that cars are able to stay in their own lanes.

If this is not corrected, there will be a serious problem.

Cele Porges, Camarillo

Dear Reader:

Your concern puzzles Caltrans.

The agency completed an overhaul of this off-ramp in 1992, and the angle of the turns conforms with state codes, engineer Luu Nguyen says.

Nguyen observed traffic at the intersection and checked accident reports for the area, but found nothing to indicate that the turn is dangerous.

“There is nothing unusual about the angle of this turn,” Nguyen said. “Perhaps if drivers slow down, it will solve the problem.”

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Dear Street Smart:

Driving west on the Simi Valley Freeway as it connects with the southbound Moorpark Freeway, I find a lack of signs until I am just at the point where the two freeways come together.

This can be very confusing.

Couldn’t there be signs along these freeways alerting drivers to the change so that we will know we are going the right way?

Geraldine Spivak, Thousand Oaks

Dear Reader:

Not only could there be signs, there should be signs informing drivers of the connection of the two freeways, says Bob Houle, traffic engineer for Caltrans.

After sending a crew out to survey the area, Caltrans discovered that there are not enough signs to adequately warn drivers about the transition between the two freeways.

For some reason, the signs were never installed after the freeway connector was completed in the fall of 1993, Houle says.

“The way it is now, it is very confusing,” Houle said. The lack of signs “was an oversight.”

Signs should be up within the next several weeks.

STREET-LIGHT ALERT

In recent weeks, Ventura residents have been flooding the city’s traffic department with complaints about burned-out street lights. The city wishes to inform residents that Southern California Edison is responsible for the upkeep of the lights. To report a burned-out light, please call Edison at 647-9250 or (800) 442-4950.