Hedge No Danger at On-Ramp but Proceed With Caution

Dear Street Smart:

The southbound ramp onto the Ventura Freeway at Harbor Boulevard in Ventura is very dangerous.

A second on-ramp coming from Thompson Boulevard merges with Harbor. But the Thompson ramp is elevated, so cars on Harbor can’t see traffic coming from Thompson.

The visibility problem is worsened by hedges between the ramps just before they join.

These bushes make it difficult to see other cars and should be removed immediately.

Bernard Lehrer

Ventura

Dear Reader:

In his 35 years maintaining Ventura’s roadways, Caltrans area Supt. Dave Chapman has not encountered any problems with the Harbor Boulevard on-ramp.

The hedges between the two ramps are planned landscaping, and there are several hundred feet of open space before the two lanes actually come together, Chapman says.

“It complies with all the codes,” he says.

However, Chapman acknowledges that drivers should be alert when merging there.

“You have to pay attention,” he says. “You can’t just go zipping down.”

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Dear Street Smart:

There is a mileage sign on the Simi Valley Freeway that has bothered me for years. It is located on the westbound side just after the Balboa Boulevard exit in Granada Hills.

The signs reads as follows:

Chatsworth 5 mi.

Simi Valley 13 mi.

Moorpark 23 mi.

Those distances are totally incorrect.

It is less than 10 miles to Simi Valley, and since Simi Valley is at least 10 miles long and Moorpark is at least 10 miles beyond the west end of Simi Valley, it would seem that Moorpark would be at least 30 miles.

I haven’t measured the distances recently, but I’m sure you will find them incorrect.

Doesn’t the highway department check these distances before they create signs?

Esther Bloch

Simi Valley

Dear Reader:

The problem here is not with mileage counts, but with what is being measured.

When Caltrans posts signs listing mileage to a particular city, it measures the distance not to the border of the town, but to its government center or city hall, says engineer Peter Gavrils.

In the case of Simi Valley, you are correct that it is not 10 miles from Balboa Boulevard to the city’s edge. But it is 10 miles by the time you get to City Hall.

For a community like Chatsworth, which is not actually a city, Caltrans measures the distance to the main shopping district or business center.

And contrary to your suggestion that Moorpark and Simi Valley are 10 miles apart, the cities are squeezed side by side, without an inch of space between them.

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Dear Street Smart:

I am very concerned about the speed limit on Wood Ranch Parkway in Simi Valley.

The street has no outlet and is used only by residents. It has heavy pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

Under these conditions, the 50 m.p.h. speed limit is excessive and creates a hazardous situation.

Traffic traveling at this high speed makes it very difficult to turn onto Wood Ranch from the north entrance to Lake Park Drive.

I fail to see why this residential street has the same speed limit as Madera Road.

Dawn Kozlowski Simi Valley

Dear Reader:

Speed limits. Time and again, traffic engineers face questions over how they are set and why they are so high.

The answer remains the same.

In compliance with state law, speed limits are determined by the pace of the drivers who use the roadway.

Traffic engineers periodically time traffic to see how fast it is going. The limit is then based on the speed of the bulk of traffic.

For Wood Ranch Parkway, most traffic travels at 50 m.p.h. south of the south entrance to Lake Park Drive, says Simi Valley traffic engineer Bill Golubics. However, north of that entrance, traffic travels at 45 m.p.h. and the limit is set accordingly.

In traffic-engineer lingo, Wood Ranch Parkway is not a residential street, because there are no houses built on it.

Instead, it is an arterial street, designed to get drivers from the main road to their residential street.

To handle pedestrian and bicycle traffic, the four-lane road is equipped with eight-foot shoulders and off-street bike paths and sidewalks, Golubics says.