CHP Officers ‘Pick and Choose’ Speeders on Freeways

Dear Street Smart:

The 55 m.p.h. freeway speed limit generally is not enforced. So for drivers the rules are uncertain, and for the CHP it is a turkey shoot.

Once, while keeping up with traffic on the San Diego Freeway, I was singled out, pulled over, and cited for going 70.

Afterward, the officer directed that I “accelerate to the speed of traffic before re-entering the traffic lanes. We would not want you to cause an accident,” he said.

“But officer,” I said. “all the traffic is going 70 m.p.h!”

“I am aware of that,” he replied. Since driving the speed limit was hazardous, he directed me to drive at the same speed he cited me!

Shouldn’t the CHP enforce a true speed limit for all with an even hand? It is cynical and unfair to post a speed limit and then use unstated, discretionary rules (or personal biases) to single out violators whenever and wherever the CHP chooses. Isn’t this a “speed trap?”

Marvin J. Rosen San Juan Capistrano Mike Lundquist, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, acknowledged that because so many people ignore the 55 m.p.h. freeway speed limit, officers can “pick and choose” who they cite. The rule of thumb, he said, is to pull over the motorist who is driving the fastest.

But often, he said, that motorist was the only one speeding because other drivers saw the patrol car and slowed.

The motorist who is caught, he said, “for a moment may have been adjusting the radio or talking to a spouse or doing any number of things rather than concentrating on the task at hand, which is driving.”

The patrol officer, Lundquist said, looks for the driver who is changing lanes because he or she has become impatient with the cars ahead that have suddenly slowed to avoid being ticketed.

In the 22 years since he has been with the CHP in Orange County, Lundquist said, not enough patrol officers have been added to compensate for the addition and widening of freeways.

“You can go for miles and miles and for days and days without seeing an officer,” he said, which often makes motorists feel it is unfair when they are cited for ignoring a speed limit that others have been breaking.

Lundquist said that after writing a ticket, he too would recommend that the driver re-enter the freeway at the speed of traffic. Rarely, he said, is traffic in the far right lane traveling at 70 m.p.h., especially when the CHP is in sight.

Dear Street Smart:

I have noticed every morning (it may happen all day long) at the intersection of Lincoln and Knott that the westbound left-turn lane of Lincoln gets maximum green traffic light time even if there are only one or two cars on it. As a result, this holds the eastbound traffic on Lincoln from going unnecessarily. I have called the city of Anaheim twice about it and they say they will look into it, but so far nothing has happened. Is there a reason for this?

Dennis Koenig Cypress You are right that traffic has been unnecessarily delayed. Anaheim city traffic engineers who looked into your complaint found that the detector sensors in the westbound, left-turn lane on Lincoln had been stuck and were sending an electrical message to the computer that runs the light that a car was in the lane, even when the lane was empty.

The detector malfunctioning at the intersection has been a chronic problem because of poor pavement conditions, said Jim Paral, principal traffic engineer for Anaheim. Although Paral said he can’t specifically recall your previous complaints, he knows that the city has received a couple of similar reports from frustrated motorists in recent months, and each time, he said, the detectors have been fixed.

The problem should be alleviated permanently next spring when the street is repaved, Paral said.

Meanwhile, he said, city engineers “will continuously monitor it and make adjustments as necessary.”

Your help is welcome, he added. “Sometimes the public is our best eyes.”

Dear Street Smart:

It is time to write about the complaint I have every time I am on Katella Avenue, which I thought was supposed to be an express road.

A light has been placed on Warland Drive in Cypress. Invariably, all east-west traffic comes to a halt so one car taking Warland as a short cut from Valley View can make a westbound turn onto Katella. Many, many cars stop.

Can this light be changed to a stop sign so traffic on Katella can keep going?

Eileen Anderson Cypress Yes, Katella Avenue is specially designed for smooth sailing. Keith Carter, associate engineer for Cypress, said that from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends, traffic lights on Katella Avenue between the San Gabriel River Freeway and Beach Boulevard are coordinated so that drivers should be able to go the five-mile stretch, which includes the Warland intersection, without stopping.

However, he said, that works only if the through traffic is traveling at the posted speed limit of 45 m.p.h., not faster or slower.

Detectors installed in the pavement at the intersections, such as at Warland Drive, he said, control the traffic signals.

The signals are prompted to give cross traffic a green light only when there is an anticipated break in traffic on Katella and when cross traffic is waiting.

The only cars that should have to stop on Katella are those that entered between the San Gabriel River Freeway and Beach Boulevard, Carter said.

Having only a stop sign at Warland would not be wise, Carter said. It would be dangerous for cars to try to enter a six-lane highway filled with swift-moving traffic without the protection of a traffic light.

“It would probably increase accidents if we did that,” he said.