Xs Mark the Spots on California’s Roads and Highways

Dear Street Smart:

As you drive all over California, you see perfect Xs painted on the street. I’ve seen them on highways, and I’ve seen them on freeways.

Usually, they are more than four-feet wide and take over most of the traffic lane. Who paints those and what are they for?

Richard Willhardt

Ventura

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Dear Reader:

A keen observer. The Xs you describe--called “flight targets”--are not without function, according to surveyors with the state Department of Transportation.

And yes, there are hundreds painted across the state highway system.

“We use them as markers when we take photographs from the air,” said Pat Patelzick, a Caltrans transportation technician. “From that, we can build models of the terrain for future design and road construction.

“They’re used whenever necessary for studies that need to be done on the highways,” he said.

Don’t worry too much about any distraction the flight targets might cause, Patelzick cautioned.

“Eventually, most of them should wear off,” he said. “They’re just paint.”

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Dear Street Smart:

The thing I’m concerned with is the people who live in the 55-and-older development at Camarillo Springs.

They enter the Ventura Freeway northbound at the Camarillo Springs entrance and they stop and look over their shoulder and wait for an opportunity to enter the freeway.

I know it’s a short onramp, but I’ve been behind them on two different occasions when they stop and then the people behind them have to stop. It means that you’re entering that freeway from a standing start.

They’re going to cause a dangerous situation there one of these days.

Lloyd Dougan

Camarillo

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Dear Reader:

Unfortunately, there is little that the California Highway Patrol can do about elderly drivers who some people consider too cautious.

CHP Officer Diana Streeter is familiar with the Ventura Freeway onramp you discuss, but said that you should be responsible for making sure you are driving safe, and not monitoring the habits of others.

“In every driving situation there are three rules that apply: watch your speed, watch what the vehicles in front of you are doing and always expect the unexpected,” she said.

Although Streeter is somewhat sympathetic to your concern, there are not enough officers in the county to counsel drivers who are too cautious, she said.

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Dear Street Smart:

We have lived in Moorpark and worked in Thousand Oaks for more than six years now. We have watched Tierra Rejada Road go from a [quiet], winding road to a modern double lane on either side with a very nice, lighted median in the center.

In all, the planning of the water runoff and lighting, the planners did not account for a traffic light at a very busy T-crossing from Moorpark Road and Tierra Rejada Road.

In the last year alone, my wife and I have seen some very bloody accidents.

Cars can wait in the mornings and evenings for more than a half-hour, or get into an accident. Why is there no three-way light?

Steven Marche

Moorpark

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Dear Reader:

This intersection has been discussed in this column before.

Moorpark traffic planners long ago recognized the need for improvements at the corner of Tierra Rejada and Moorpark roads.

The Moorpark City Council last year approved spending the money to install a temporary signal there, according to Ken Gilbert, the city’s public works director.

“We are putting in a traffic signal there,” he said. “But unfortunately when government works, it seems to take forever.”

Bids on the job, expected to be about $30,000, will be opened next month, and construction should be finished sometime in March, Gilbert said.

The signal is a temporary one because county transportation planners are considering other, nearby improvements along Tierra Rejada Road that could entail realigning a portion of that thoroughfare, Gilbert said.