The Orange Freeway <i> Is </i> a Scenic Route--Up to a Point

Dear Street Smart:

I’ve lived in north Orange County since before the Orange Freeway was built. I recall reading during its construction that it was designated a “scenic route” by the state and that advertising billboards were prohibited.

For years I have enjoyed the views driving south through Brea Canyon and down into Orange County, free of the garish mess that lines many of the older freeways. I was startled and dismayed the other day to see ads for a fast-food restaurant, a bank and a soft drink, all clustered on a single pole about fifty feet high on the western edge of the freeway just north of the Nutwood Avenue exit.

What’s going on, anyway?

Don Crawford

Anaheim

Caltrans spokeswoman Rose Orem said the “Scenic Route” designation, which restricts outdoor advertising, applies only to the Orange Freeway from the Imperial Highway to the Pomona Freeway. The billboards at Nutwood Avenue are south of the protected area, she said.

Dear Street Smart:

Does it do any good to write DMV about expired auto tags? Just the other day we noticed a car driving with 1991 tags! I repeat, 1991!

Today, with everything being on computer, why doesn’t the DMV make a listing of all cars without current tags and have those cars removed?

Also, we have noticed that cars are using the “car-pool lane” as just another passing lane. It seems as if once a week we notice cars getting in and out of the car-pool lane at will. The first time it happened, I phoned the CHP but was told unless it was seen by the CHP there was nothing they could do.

Mrs. Robert Glad

Laguna Hills

If you spy a car with an expired registration tag and notify the Department of Motor Vehicles, you can be assured a letter of complaint will be sent to the violator, said department spokesman Evan Nossoff.

But chances are that the DMV’s mailing address for the violator is out of date. So if you happen to know it, give the DMV the violator’s home address.

Still, don’t expect a DMV enforcement official to show up at the offender’s front door.

About 1 million people in the state are delinquent in registering their cars, Nossoff said. The primary reason is that they can’t afford to pay their traffic tickets and they can’t register without paying up.

“We know who hasn’t registered because we keep a record of them and send them overdue notices,” Nossoff said. But the enforcement cost would be prohibitive, he said.

“How do you chase after 1 million people without adding hundreds of employees?”

Nossoff said he believes “the system will catch up” with the scofflaws when traffic cops notice their expired registration tags. If they continue to collect traffic tickets, he added, their driver’s licenses will be suspended. And if they are caught driving with suspended driver’s licenses, their cars will be impounded.

Regarding passing in the car-pool lane, CHP spokeswoman Patricia Ryan said that veering into a car-pool lane to pass slower traffic is illegal for any driver who is not eligible to drive in that lane.

It is true that violators can be cited only if they are seen by a CHP officer. However, Ryan said, you can file a report with the CHP office, providing a description of the violation, including when and where it occurred, and the license-plate number of the car.

If there are enough similar complaints, Ryan said, an extra patrol car may be stationed in the area.

Dear Street Smart:

When a motorist traveling northwest on Nisson Road in the city of Tustin reaches Newport Avenue, he or she must turn either right or left since the street ends there. I must make a right turn at that intersection every morning to gain access to the northbound lanes of the Santa Ana Freeway.

After making the right turn, you must immediately get in the left lane since the access road to the freeway is directly on the other side of the freeway, requiring a left turn.

The problem is that traffic coming off the southbound Santa Ana Freeway at Newport Avenue is directly across from the dead-end Nisson Road. The motorists coming off the freeway who want to make a left-hand turn on Newport automatically assume the right of way in disregard of the right-hand turn of Nisson traffic.

The result is that the right-hand turning Nisson traffic is cut off by the left-turning freeway off-ramp traffic.

I feel that a left-turn light for both the freeway off-ramp traffic and the right-hand-turning Nisson traffic would eliminate a potential accident in the future. Who has the right of way in this situation?

Paul F. Brode

Tustin

The Santa Ana Freeway southbound off-ramp at Newport Avenue is being relocated farther south to facilitate widening of the freeway, said Doug Anderson, a Tustin transportation engineer. This adjustment, he said, should give you a bit more time to maneuver into the left lane.

As for your suggestion for modifying the signal at Nisson and Newport so it would coordinate traffic turning into the same lane from opposite directions, Rose Orem, spokeswoman for the California Department of Transportation, said “there are no opportunities to modify the signal at this time.”

A temporary alternative, Orem said, would be to use the Red Hill on-ramp to the Santa Ana Freeway north instead of Newport Avenue.

After the Newport Avenue off-ramp is rebuilt, she said, Caltrans traffic engineers will review the Newport-Nisson intersection for possible traffic-signal changes.

Although this may be of no practical use, the DMV said that you, not the cars coming off the southbound Santa Ana Freeway, have the right of way, because you are turning right into the lane and they are turning left.