Questions and Answers About Your Commute : Diamond-Lane Trim May Add to Congestion

Dear Traffic Talk:

In North Hollywood, the westbound Ventura Freeway as it crosses the Hollywood Freeway has long been a slow bottleneck as five lanes must squeeze down to two. On the westbound Ventura Freeway as it approaches this interchange, they have added a carpool lane. This lane doesn’t end until exactly where this transition begins, so traffic cannot merge to the left to go through without risking a ticket.

This makes slowing at the bottleneck worse than before, and the last-minute leftward merge also causes an increased accident risk. I suggest that they change this carpool lane so that it ends earlier, about a mile farther east.

Les Brockmann

Reseda

Dear Les:

At this particular interchange, the westbound Ventura Freeway (134) splits, with three lanes leading to the Ventura Freeway (101)--two regular lanes and one carpool lane. When they approach the connector bridge to the 101, the carpool or leftmost lane turns into a regular lane and the two regular lanes merge into one lane, and then the two lanes go over the bridge.

The carpool lane begins about five miles east of the interchange. Rick Holland, a spokesman for Caltrans, said that his agency does not want to end the carpool lane one mile from the interchange because Caltrans wants to encourage people to carpool, and they will be less likely to use the carpool lane if it does not take them past the most congested part of the freeway, the stretch leading to the interchange.

Dear Traffic Talk:

There is a part of our street, Newcastle Avenue in Reseda, that is unpaved. We happen to live right next to that part of the street, which looks like it also needs to be regraded. When it rains, pools of water gather at our driveway, and the water is cracking our driveway. Cars can’t see until the last moment that the street is unpaved. A couple of times, cars have lost control there due to the slickness, come into our driveway and nearly hit our 5-year-old son.

I recently called the city’s street maintenance service-request section. I was told that it was not a top priority because it is not a life-or-death situation. The operator was nice but a bit cavalier. I hate to think that it would take something tragic to happen for something to be done about the problem.

Robin Biglang-Awa

Reseda

Dear Robin:

Patrick Howard, director of the city’s Bureau of Street Maintenance, said he believes your house must have been built before the adoption of a city policy requiring all home developers to construct the streets to city specifications. It appears that whoever built your street constructed a substandard one.

The bureau does not take financial responsibility for building residential streets, although it does repave damaged streets. If you want the city to build your street, Howard said you should talk to your neighbors to see if a majority of them agree to be taxed to pay for the street. The procedure is called forming an assessment district.

If you want to pursue this idea, call An Pham, a civil engineer with the city Bureau of Engineering’s street-improvements group, at (818) 756-8457.

Traffic Talk appears Fridays in The Times Valley Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic in the Valley. Please write to Traffic Talk, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Include your full name, address and daytime phone numbers. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted. To record your comments, call (818) 772-3303. Fax letters to (818) 772-3385. E-mail questions to valley@latimes.com.