GARDEN GROVE : Barriers to Be Tried as Traffic Solution

To keep through traffic off residential streets between Trask Avenue and Garden Grove Boulevard, the City Council voted this week to try out a system of barriers and diverters.

Within a month, residents will see barriers at Hope Street, Adland Street and Jessica Drive at Trask Avenue; and right-turn-only diverters at Bowen and Flower streets.

If they prove effective after a three-month trial, a city spokesman said, they may become permanent.

The concept came out of community meetings, City Engineer Bill Patapoff said.

The diverters were opposed, however, by residents along nearby Benton Street, who complained at Tuesday’s council meeting that the system will increase traffic on their street and endanger children who play there.

“It is going to triple or quadruple traffic on our street,” resident Carol Barber said. “Whoever has looked at this has not looked at it properly.”

Council members said the Public Works Department will continue to study the situation and emphasized that the diverters and barriers are temporary.

Residents of Benton also complained of speeding cars on their streets. In response, the council voted to install a four-way stop sign at Benton Street and Imperial Avenue.

In other action this week, the council passed an ordinance that would prohibit pedestrians from approaching drivers on city streets to pitch products or services, or to panhandle.

Their aim, council members said, is to end practices that may intimidate drivers and cause a safety hazard.

The maximum fine for a first offense would be a $500 fine or a year in jail, the city attorney’s office said.

Pondering Closure

Garden Grove will test some traffic pattern changes when the city widens Trask Avenue. If the changes, which include closures and right turns only on to Trask, work, they could be made permanent.