Complaint Over Long Red Light Leads to a Simple Fix

Dear Street Smart:

I saw your article about the annoyance over traffic lights that try the patience of Huntington Beach drivers. There is one here in Anaheim that seems to either be in bad order or is poorly oriented to say the least.

It is the intersection of Ball Road and Empire Street, which is just east of Brookhurst Street. Every time I come to the intersection, it is red--and there is no cross traffic or pedestrians crossing--and it stays red, it seems, for three minutes, keeping cars idling and stopping to keep the law but wasting gasoline and time.

Needless to say, the gasoline and time are needed by anyone driving in Orange County.

David Hunter Anaheim O joyous, rapturous day. On the strength of your letter, an Anaheim signal technician examined the signals at Ball and Empire and found a problem. And he fixed it, right on the spot!

The signal technician found a broken pedestrian push button on Empire that was constantly prompting a pedestrian green light, whether a pedestrian was pushing the button or not, said Jim Paral, principal traffic engineer for Anaheim. This was creating delays for Ball Road traffic, which is always more heavily traveled than Empire Street. The technician was able to fix the broken button that afternoon.

Paral says that with more than 250 intersections in Anaheim and only four signal technicians to maintain them, the Traffic Engineering Department relies on the public to tell them about problems. Drivers are encouraged to report possible malfunctions by calling (714) 254-5202.

Life in the world of traffic engineering and Street Smart does not get much more rewarding than this.

Dear Street Smart:

There is a confusing situation involving the approach to the northbound on-ramp to the San Diego Freeway from Irvine Center Drive in Irvine. On the right side is a bike lane, the divider line of which becomes broken as it nears the right-turn space for vehicles making the turn onto the on-ramp.

When traffic is heavy, vehicles fill the actual lane as well as the bike lane, making two lanes out of one. I believe many accidents have occurred due to this confusion.

I believe the broken line of the bike lane merely indicates that it’s OK to cross over to make the right-turn onto the approach to the on-ramp. I’d appreciate your investigation.

Gerald Frad Aliso Viejo You’re right about the bike lane being for bicyclists and not for overeager drivers trying to turn right. Legally, drivers cannot enter a bike lane until the solid line breaks into dashes, usually several feet before the intersection.

Caltrans designed this on-ramp wide at the top of the loop to allow trucks the extra turning radius they need, said Rose Orem, an agency spokeswoman. It was not designed for two-lane vehicle traffic, she said.

Drivers using the bike lane are violating the law. On the strength of your letter, Caltrans has notified law enforcement to monitor this location for bike-lane scofflaws.

Dear Street Smart:

Who is responsible for the terrible paving job between the north end and south end of the San Diego Freeway leading to and coming off of the Laguna Freeway? It is so bad that it has become a road hazard, what with all the holes it now has.

Stanley Eskin Laguna Hills Caltrans maintenance crews paved this route in October as a temporary measure to maintain the roadway through the rainy winter months, Orem said. Equipment not normally used for permanent paving jobs was used in this stopgap measure to reduce the number of severe potholes and road cracking, she said.

Ideally, roads are paved in the summer when weather is warmer and more predictable, Orem said. Caltrans originally had scheduled that area of the freeway to be paved in a more permanent and aesthetic fashion in August, 1994, but at that time the special equipment needed for the job was on loan to Caltrans in Los Angeles, where road repairs had higher priority because of the Northridge earthquake, she said.

Caltrans plans to repave this section of the freeway this spring, Orem said.

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.