Cost of Cutting View-Impeding Embankment Too Steep

Dear Street Smart:

When driving down Saticoy Avenue and entering the dead-end Blackburn Road, there is such a large embankment on your right side that any view of oncoming traffic on Blackburn Road is hindered.

There are many elderly drivers living in the Country Estates mobile home park who might have an accident at this dangerous intersection.

It would take very little time and expense to have a skip-loader or backhoe cut and roll the embankment back to the north to clear up this accident-prone situation.

Thank you for any assistance in understanding and correcting this dangerous situation.

Nordie T. Swanson

Ventura

Dear Reader:

Public works officials in Ventura have looked at the embankment you are concerned about. But the reason it exists is to support that portion of Saticoy Avenue.

“You can’t just cut into it because you’re setting yourself up for potential slides,” City Engineer Rick Raives said.

“About the only way to do it [remove the embankment safely] would be to cut back and put a retaining wall in there,” he said. “But that would be quite a bit more costly.”

Raives said that the intersection does not seem particularly dangerous. Only three accidents have been reported at that corner in the past eight years, he said.

“We studied it in 1990 and didn’t really see a problem,” Raives said. “The accident history doesn’t dictate that there’s a problem out there.”

Dear Street Smart:

First, thank you for your column. It addresses true needs of the community and eliminates the frustration anyone trying to get through the bureaucracy will undoubtedly experience.

Laurelwood Drive in Thousand Oaks runs east off Erbes Road, about halfway between Sunset Hills and Avenida de Los Arboles.

For a long time, the street dead-ended at a barricade at the top of the hill. Because of this, driving school instructors found it an ideal spot to practice backing up and three-point turns.

However, the street is now open to additional housing. Yet driving instructors continue to use the area in front of our house for practice.

The problem is twofold. First, drivers tend to speed along this stretch. Second, the crest of the hill is blind in both directions. Cars traveling westbound crest the hill and suddenly find a student driver stopped in the middle of the street doing a three-point turn.

The bottom line is that there is going to be a serious accident involving a student driver. I’m tempted to put a sign in our yard warning student drivers that their instructors are putting their lives in peril by practicing here.

John F. Burke

Thousand Oaks

Dear Reader:

While there is no law prohibiting U-turns in your neighborhood, state law prohibits U-turns or three-point turns in a street where drivers cannot see for 200 feet.

Therefore, if instructors are teaching student drivers how to make three-point turns at the crest of a hill, where the driver cannot see 200 feet in either direction, technically, they are breaking the law, traffic analyst Jeff Knowles said.

It should be of comfort to you, however, that police in Thousand Oaks are now paying attention to that stretch of Laurelwood Drive.

“If it’s one driving school in particular, we can contact the school directly and make them aware of the law,” Senior Deputy Craig Smith said.

Dear Street Smart:

I travel every week on a small road that has a stop sign at the end. This may seem to be a little road, and it is. But the most important difference is that this is the same road used by the large oil trucks.

The importance of the stop sign cannot be overstated. This sign is the only indication of danger that a driver can see before entering the intersection at Faria Drive and Padre Juan Canyon near Rincon Gardens.

Right now, the stop sign has been pushed or has fallen over into a nearby cyclone fence that surrounds Rincon Gardens.

The result is that a driver going north on the road simply doesn’t see the stop sign any more, and continues on into the intersection. There is no stop sign for the oil trucks.

The stop sign needs to be righted and braced, so it will not fall over again.

Rita Braun

Camarillo

Dear Reader:

Because both Faria Drive and Padre Juan Canyon Road are both privately owned, county and state road crews have no jurisdiction over maintaining the signs that regulate traffic on those two streets.

However, the owner of the Rincon Gardens nursery said he would see to it that the stop sign in front of his business is properly affixed.

“There’s not supposed to be much traffic down this street, but if the sign’s not visible, I’ll check it out,” said Mark Cayer. “I’ll make sure it’s up.”

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.