County to Smooth ‘50-MPH Speed Bump’ on Gerry Road

Dear Street Smart:

Regarding the recent completion of the second phase of the Santa Rosa Road project:

At the junction of Phase 1 and Phase 2--Gerry Road--there is a very noticeable and jarring bump. I call it a 50-mile-an-hour speed bump.

Since my other car is a firetruck, this bump concerns me because my head bounces off the cab roof every time we cross it. I would think they could do a better job of blending the road surface.

Steve E. Noblett

Simi Valley

Dear Reader:

County transportation officials are way ahead of you. They know about the bump and have formulated plans to smooth it over.

“It’s only a few inches, but it is too abrupt,” said Butch Britt, the county’s deputy public works director. “Even though it does meet our current criteria, it doesn’t feel right and we’re going to fix it.”

Britt said it would cost less than $1,000 for the contractor to fix the bump, which he estimated at about 4 inches.

“What we need to do is make it more a smooth vertical curve,” he said. “It should be fixed within a week or 10 days, hopefully, or shortly thereafter.”

Dear Street Smart:

The Dawson Drive entrance to the northbound Ventura Freeway always feels unsafe to me, since I enter coming from the east. We frequently need to stop for oncoming traffic before making the sharp left turn into the entrance.

Cars coming from the west do not need to stop and have a nice, gentle curve to the freeway entrance. But the cars from the east have the yield sign.

I never have a sense that the yield will be honored. The cars from the west enter at full speed and show no sign of slowing. And I don’t blame them. They do not have to stop before entering, whereas I do and I’m entering from a cold start.

It seems to me that the cars from the west should have the yield, not those from the east.

Lilith

Ventura

Dear Reader:

Camarillo city traffic officials know well this freeway onramp and the troublesome time some motorists experience when trying to get onto the interstate at Dawson Drive.

Plans are underway for improvements, however.

Consultants are drawing up a new and wider intersection with a traffic signal to be installed by fall. Money for the $500,000 project already has been set aside, said Tom Fox, the city traffic engineer.

Meantime, Fox said he would ask police to step up patrols for drivers who fail to yield.

“As long as the situation is the way it is, I’m not sure we can do a lot other than enforcement,” he said. “If people aren’t yielding, that’s an issue for the police.”

Dear Street Smart:

I was a bit irritated by a characterization of a group of bicyclists as “the nasty pack of bikers” in the Jan. 15 column. The letter writer merely stated that he had difficulty passing them.

Motorists and cyclists do share the same roads, and on occasion there may arise a situation where a motorist may have to slow down and wait a moment for a safe passing area.

Rather than a terse honk of the horn, as your article suggests, try a more friendly toot to alert the group to your presence. Your column should promote courtesy on the roads--for everyone using them.

Michael Steinbaum

Ventura

Dear Reader:

Mea culpa on “the nasty pack of bikers” reference. Yours was not the only letter that called into question that response.

However, when hundreds of cyclists clog up a public highway, as the reader had complained, the California Highway Patrol and common sense suggest that a short toot of a car horn may not be enough to dissipate the roadblock.

By the way, such impediments to traffic would not occur if cyclists always rode in single file, as required by law.

Write to Street Smart, The Times Ventura County Edition, 93 S. Chestnut St., Ventura 93001. You may enclose a simple sketch if it will help Street Smart understand your traffic questions. Or call our Sound Off Line, 653-7546. Whether writing or calling, include your full name, address, and day and evening phone numbers. No anonymous queries will be accepted, and letters are subject to editing.