Oso and Antonio Parkways Corner to Get Traffic Lights

Dear Street Smart:

I am very concerned about a dangerous situation at Oso and Antonio parkways in the rapidly developing area east of Mission Viejo.

Oso Parkway was recently opened through to Coto de Caza and the intersection has become a very large four-way stop. A signal is urgently needed before someone comes down Oso from Coto and misses the stop.

It is a wide-open downhill grade with no entering streets for miles, and then suddenly the stop sign appears at the bottom of the hill. This route is heavily traveled by car-pools of youngsters and new teen-age drivers because Santa Margarita High School is north of there on Antonio.

I hope you can urge action on this one before disaster strikes.

Teri Abrams

Laguna Niguel

You had only to ask. Installing a traffic signal at the Oso-Antonio parkways intersection was one of the conditions the Santa Margarita Co. agreed upon when it developed the Las Flores community and when Oso Parkway was extended about two months ago.

Traffic engineers from Orange County, which has jurisdiction there, have approved the signal plan submitted by Santa Margarita, said Ignacio Ochoa, the county’s traffic engineer. It will be another four to five months before this signal is up and running, because longer than average poles will be needed for this extra-wide intersection, and they must be custom-ordered, he said.

Dear Street Smart:

There is a two-block stretch of Avery Parkway where it goes under Interstate 5 that is a horror for anyone who drives it regularly.

There are four traffic signals along the two blocks, complete with left-turn arrows and they are so poorly synchronized, you’re guaranteed to stop for at least two.

During even moderate traffic, cars are stacked along the left and right-turn lanes and into cross traffic.

I can’t even determine what agency is responsible for this strip, because the boundaries between Mission Viejo, San Juan Capistrano and Laguna Niguel are all right there.

Can you bring these problems to the attention of the proper authorities and get some relief for us crazed commuters?

Opher Banarie

Laguna Niguel

Traffic officials are aware of the gridlock, but it has nothing to do with the synchronization of the traffic signals, which are coordinated, said Shirley Land, transportation engineer for the City of Mission Viejo. Too many cars in too small a space is the problem, the engineer said.

And, unfortunately, little can be done about it. “In terms of this interchange ever working ideally, it won’t,” Land said.

The problem lies in the close spacing of the four intersections underneath and next to Interstate 5 at Avery Parkway. The distance between these intersections is no more than 300 feet, and in two cases, only 200 feet, Land said.

This interchange was designed according to rural standards, before Interstate 5 was built through Orange County in 1956. It is ill-equipped to handle the 35,000 vehicles that now travel through there every day, Land said.

The problem is compounded right now by major construction work on Camino Capistrano that reduces traffic to one lane in each direction.

Dear Street Smart:

Why is there no crosswalk on the south side of the Harbor Boulevard and Sunflower Avenue intersection when there is room for one?

Tim Miller

Garden Grove

Costa Mesa traffic engineers did evaluate the possibility of a crosswalk there, but decided it would disrupt the flow of vehicle traffic on Harbor Boulevard, said Dave Sorge, a traffic operations engineer and project manager for Costa Mesa.

Because of the way the traffic signals are phased, a crosswalk would take away about 35 seconds from Harbor Boulevard through traffic, he said.

Striking the right balance between pedestrian and vehicle movement is always a consideration, Sorge said.

But in this case, the 70,000 cars that travel Harbor Boulevard every day outweighed the relatively light pedestrian traffic that can use the crosswalks already on the north, east and west sides of the intersection.

Street Smart appears Mondays in The Times Orange County Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic, commuting and what makes it difficult to get around in Orange County. Include simple sketches if helpful. Letters may be published in upcoming columns. Please write to Caroline Lemke, c/o Street Smart, The Times Orange County, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted.