San Fernando : Plan to Ease Traffic Receives Go-Ahead

San Fernando motorists will get the green light more often once the city completes a traffic project.

Beginning next week, Barton-Ashman Associates Inc., a traffic engineering firm, will start counting cars as the first step in synchronizing traffic signals on Brand Boulevard, Truman and Hubbard streets and Maclay Avenue, said city engineer Jerry Wedding.

Twenty-one signals along these four streets will be coordinated to eliminate the stop-and-go traffic that has irritated many motorists, he said.

Traffic signals will be adjusted on Truman Street from Wolfskill Street to Hubbard Street, on Brand Boulevard from O’Melveny Avenue to Truman Street, on Maclay Avenue from 1st to 8th streets and on Hubbard Street from San Fernando Road to 5th Street.

The firm will also do a computer analysis of existing traffic, and the traffic signals should be synchronized by mid-March, Wedding said.

The project, which will cost $27,000, is funded by the Air Quality Management District, which receives $1 or $2 for every registered vehicle.

In addition to improving the flow of traffic, Wedding said he hopes the project will help reduce the pollution that results from stop-and-go traffic.

“The community will like it even if we don’t reduce emissions because it’ll be easier to get through town,” Wedding said.