Southland Nets Most-Ticketed ‘Speed Zone’

Some commuters call it Orange County’s Autobahn, the one area of the Southern California driving experience where, suddenly, Interstate 5 feels like a roadway in Germany, France, Austria or Switzerland, where the speedometer cranks up to 110, 120, 130 . . .

That’s kilometers. In miles per hour, the speeds along this route routinely reach 70 and 80 and sometimes climb higher than the much-ignored limit of 65. In figures released last week, the California Highway Patrol confirmed what many have long suspected:

The stretch of I-5 between the San Diego County line and Camino de Estrella and Camino de los Mares in San Clemente is officially the most heavily ticketed “speed zone” in Orange County. But its level of distinction has grown: The same stretch of roadway is now the most heavily ticketed, prone-to-speeding area in all of California, the CHP said.

In 1995 alone, CHP officers issued 8,225 speeding tickets on that stretch of I-5. In Orange County, the next most heavily ticketed zone was a few miles north: I-5 between the California 1 connection to I-5 and Avery Parkway recorded 4,976 tickets, making it No. 4 on the statewide list.

To those familiar with I-5 in south Orange County--be they traffic officers, pedal-to-the-metal commuters, or anyone exiting the semirural environs of northern San Diego County for the urban sprawl of Greater Los Angeles--the news is hardly surprising.

“I could have told you that without even checking with the CHP,” said Bob Mignogna, publisher of San Clemente-based Surfing magazine. “Every week, I travel to the county line to surf at Trestles [Beach]. And every Wednesday for the last five or six months, I’ve seen 10 black-and-white [CHP vehicles] on the prowl for speeders.”

Although the CHP has stepped up enforcement efforts in trying to apprehend speeders along what some officials call “the zone of acceleration”--otherwise known as the boundary between Orange and San Diego counties--Mignogna doesn’t attribute the high number of tickets to that crackdown.

The number of tickets is high, he said, “because people are speeding like crazy pretty much all the way” from Oceanside to south Orange County.

“Everybody speeds coming out of Camp Pendleton [on I-5], or going into it,” he said. “It’s like they say, ‘Great! Let’s step on it!’ And they don’t slow down until well into Orange County. Then, the gridlock takes over.”

“I don’t think we drive as fast as people on the Autobahn, but drivers do tend to crank it up and let it go,” said Charles Geer, the U.S. Border Patrol agent in charge of the San Clemente checkpoint, which, in an inland effort to nab illegal immigrants, temporarily stops northbound speeders.

It is, however, a stop that seems to have scant effect in making drivers slow down.

With the Pacific Ocean leading the eye hypnotically from I-5 to the azure horizon on the west, coupled with the rolling hills of Camp Pendleton to the east, motorists have a tendency to let their minds wander, say Geer and others.

While the mind wanders, the foot gets heavier. Sometimes, much heavier. Drivers build up so much momentum in the 18 miles between Oceanside and San Clemente--or feel so much freer in approaching the wide-open spaces of the county line from the north--that a kind of driver’s dissociation takes over.

“It reminds me of the way people drive as they’re leaving Los Angeles headed toward Las Vegas,” Geer said. “They totally forget the speed limit and just about everything else, for that matter. It must be a feeling of freedom that takes over.”

If so, it’s a feeling of freedom that gets sharply compromised the closer drivers get to Los Angeles, and the figures bear it out.

The CHP reports that of the five most heavily ticketed speed zones in Orange County, four are in the south, covering pretty much the entire distance from the county line to the El Toro Y. The “five top beats for speed citations” in Orange County for 1995 were as follows:

* I-5 from the San Diego County line north to Camino de Estrella and Camino de los Mares, 8,225 citations.

* I-5 from the California 1 connection north to Avery Parkway in Mission Viejo, 4,976 citations.

* I-5 from Jeffrey Road north to 1st Street in Santa Ana, 3,126 citations.

* I-5 from Avery Parkway north to La Paz Road in Mission Viejo, 2,631 citations.

* I-5 from La Paz Road north to Interstate 405 in Irvine, 2,060 citations.

By comparison, the top beats for speed citations in the Los Angeles area in 1995 were:

* Interstate 10 in West Covina from Vincent Avenue east to Via Verde, 3,339 citations.

* California 14 in Antelope Valley from Ward Road east and north to the Avenue M “over-crossing,” 3,141 citations.

* California 14 in the Antelope Valley, from the Avenue M over-crossing to Avenue A, 2,680 citations.

* Interstate 605 in Santa Fe Springs from the Interstate 5 junction north to the California 60 junction, 2,521 citations.

* From January to April 1995, the fifth most heavily cited speeding zone was from the junction of Interstate 210 and Interstate 605 in Glendora, west to Allen Avenue in Pasadena. CHP officials say this beat changed from May to December of last year, ending a few miles east at Citrus Avenue in Azusa. The combination of the two beats produced 2,432 citations.

As for the “why” behind the figures, officials say south Orange County and north San Diego County register high because they serve as a line of demarcation between the more developed areas of Southern California and the relatively uncharted wilderness of Camp Pendleton, where speeding is not just common--it’s one of the few places where it’s even possible.

“My experience is that, when you have a relatively straight roadway that’s wide open, the sensation of speed isn’t the same as if you were driving in downtown L.A.,” said Ted Prola, a public affairs officer for the CHP. “In the 18-mile stretch between Oceanside and San Clemente, for instance, you have only two offramps. So you don’t have a lot of egress to the freeway, which causes cars to slow down or move out of the way.”

One problem, authorities said, is that higher speeds lead to more destructive accidents. Last year, 87 vehicles engulfed in fog collided in a pileup in southbound I-5 just below the Orange County line. Amazingly, Prola said, there were injuries but no fatalities.

“When accidents are caused by speed, there’s much more damage,” he said. “The higher the speed, the more energy you create. I’ve seen some incredible things on I-5.”

Pedestrian fatalities are another issue. Fifty-three occurred on I-5 near the San Clemente checkpoint between 1987 and August 1993, when a 7-mile-long, 8-foot-high fence that cost $458,000 was constructed between the northbound and southbound lanes of I-5 between the checkpoint and Las Pulgas Road.

Since the fence was completed, only one such fatality has occurred recently, claiming the life of a Latino male in his early 20s.

To curb speeding, the CHP has mounted aggressive ticketing campaigns, and, Prola said, will continue to do so. One such campaign in 1994--which was aided by a federal grant that helped pay for officers’ overtime--nabbed 400 speeders in four hours in the area between the San Diego County line and Camino de Estrella.

Last December, the speed limit in California was raised to 65, but Prola fears that it will make no difference on the so-called Autobahn. In the wide-open freeway that is I-5 between Pendleton and south Orange County, a higher speed limit, he said, is merely recognizing the obvious.

“Unless development consumes that area too,” he said, “I don’t see the speeding thing changing much. It’s one place in California where people just want to drive fast and have for a long, long time.”

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That’s No E Ticket

Last year, CHP officers issued more than 21,000 speeding tickets in five freeway zones, busiest being the stretch of the San Diego Freeway between the San Diego County line and Camino de Estrella in San Clemente.

The five zones where the most tickets were issued:

1) San Clemente: 8,225

2) San Juan Capistrano: 4,976

3) Santa Ana: 3,126

4) Mission Viejo: 2,631

5) Lake Forest: 2,060

Source: California Highway Patrol