No Quick Fix Seen for Parked Vans Blocking Visibility
Dear Street Smart: The proliferation of vans has made attempting to back out of a parking lot at a shopping center extremely hazardous. There is no clear view of oncoming traffic. I believe the time has come for designated areas (such as handicapped parking) where vans must park. Could you direct my concerns to the appropriate authorities?
Betty Ringer, Anaheim Hills
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Paul Snodgrass, a highway safety specialist for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, shares your concerns.
“I don’t like them personally,” Snodgrass said. “They are big boxes and they’re always in your way. They block your view and fill your rear-view mirror so that you almost have to get a box yourself to see. People who don’t have them don’t like them, and people who have them love them. I know what she’s talking about; it’s kind of a Rambo thing that they’re marketing, and there are a lot more of them in parking lots now than there used to be.”
In recent years, he said, vans and trucks have proliferated and now constitute more than 40% of the vehicle sales in the United States.
Requiring them to park in specially designated areas, he said, is probably a good idea. Unfortunately, however, there are only two ways of doing it, according to Snodgrass. One is to persuade individual mall owners to require the special parking in their lots. The other is to follow the example of various organizations for disabled people, which spent many years lobbying for the state law now mandating that their special parking spaces be set aside.
“It’s a legitimate concern,” Snodgrass said of the vans, “maybe even to the point where private parking lot owners might respond.”
In the meantime, he has some suggestions.
When backing out of a space next to a van, he said, turn on your blinkers to draw attention to yourself and indicate which way you are turning. If someone is with you, have them stand a safe distance behind your car to direct you out.
“Remember that you’re next to this big behemoth vehicle,” Snodgrass said. “Watch their big rear bumper.”
Dear Street Smart: It has been almost a year since the completion of construction on the Beach Boulevard “smart street” from Main Street in Huntington Beach to Buena Park. A key to the improved traffic flow was to synchronize the traffic lights. This has not been done. In fact, the flow of traffic is a lot worse than it was before construction began. I know because I drive from Huntington Beach to Buena Park every day. Can we ever expect the promises of a “smart street” to be fulfilled?
Bill Morrow, Huntington Beach
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State and county transportation officials both disagreed with you that the commute has worsened and insisted the reverse is true.
“It couldn’t possibly be worse than it was,” said John Garcia, director of the Beach Boulevard project for the Orange County Transportation Authority. “We basically added a lane in every direction. Capacity has been added, signals have been upgraded, so everything should be working much better.”
The $36-million project was designed to increase traffic flow by widening the street, synchronizing signals, restricting parking and adding bus turnouts and more right- and left-turn lanes.
Garcia’s response was seconded by Rose Orem, a spokeswoman for Caltrans, which oversees the traffic signals.
“We maintain the signals and continuously monitor traffic flow and synchronization,” she said. “We do field checks to see how the traffic is going, and we believe that it has improved significantly.”
She has a theory as to why your own commute hasn’t improved. Synchronization does little good during certain peak hours when traffic builds up, not only on Beach Boulevard but on major cross streets as well.
“We have to allow the cross traffic to flow sometimes,” she said. “Beach Boulevard is a primary highway, but it’s not the only one. We do our best to accommodate traffic in all directions, not just north and south along Beach Boulevard.”
The result?
“It reaches the point where you’re finally going to catch a red light,” she said. “You can’t expect to go from Huntington Beach all the way to Buena Park on green lights. That’s unreasonable considering the volume of traffic we have in Orange County.”
Garcia added: “When it’s gridlocked both ways, synchronization breaks down.”
