San Joaquin Route Features a Fare Way to Collect Toll

Dear Street Smart:

There have been numerous articles lately about the rapid progress in construction of the new San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor. However, there has been no mention that I have seen of the method they intend to use to collect tolls.

The Riverside Freeway express lanes can use electronics because there is only one entrance and one exit. How will this corridor, with so many entrances and exits, be handled?

Jean Fair

Laguna Niguel

In much the same way but with more options, according to officials at the Transportation Corridor Agencies.

When the new toll road opens July 24 from Aliso Viejo to San Juan Capistrano, drivers who stay in the left lane will have their accounts debited exactly as do commuters on the Riverside Freeway express lanes, by electronic devices that read card-size transponders mounted in their windshields, agency spokesman Greg Henk said.

Transponders can be obtained from the agency’s service center at (800) 378-TRAK.

The toll road’s right lanes, on the other hand, will be equipped with electronically monitored collection baskets into which drivers can toss the correct amount of change, as indicated by signs posted at each toll plaza.

Precisely where a given driver pays the toll, however, will be determined by direction and destination: southbound travelers will pay or be debited as they enter the toll road, while those driving north will pay upon exiting.

The seven-mile segment of road will have six on-ramps and six off-ramps, with fares ranging from 50 cents to $1 depending on the length of one’s drive. Fares will be enforced by hidden video cameras that automatically photograph the license plates of those who don’t pay.

Potential users can get a road preview July 20, when the agency sponsors “Cruise the Corridor,” a race along the untried route for runners and bicyclists.

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Dear Street Smart:

There are at least 10 times daily that a red arrow prevents me from turning left when the coast is clear. . . . Why not just pass a law allowing left turns when it is clear?

In regards to safety, I do not need “Big Brother” telling me what is and is not safe. I am an adult and can make that decision for myself. What can we, as drivers, do to make this long overdue change? I don’t want to keep breaking the law when I turn left against a red arrow. However, I will not let a red arrow tell me not to go when I can see for myself that it is clear and will remain clear for the next two minutes.

M. Lahr

Orange

The Orange County Traffic Engineers Council, in fact, is encouraging cities to phase out signals that feature only the left-turn arrows and taking the choice out of the drivers’ hands.

About a year ago, the council adopted guidelines urging the installation of more of the left-turn arrows that must be obeyed, followed by full green lights during which a driver can use his or her discretion about whether to turn left, according to George Allen, traffic engineer for Garden Grove and a member of the council. That move prompted him to install 10 of the lights in his city within the past three months, Allen said.

“I’ve had nothing but good comments,” he said. “People really like them; they can’t understand why we didn’t do it before. It saves delays, increases traffic flow and helps air quality because you’re not sitting there idling at the intersection.”

Allen is so encouraged by the results he hopes to install at least 10 more of the new lights in Garden Grove next year.

In the meantime, though, the situation “is real cut and dried,” said California Highway Patrol spokesman Steve Kohler.

“You don’t turn left against a red arrow. You may think you are very responsible and capable of doing it, but there may be a lot of other people who can’t make that kind of decision.”

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Dear Street Smart:

The Warner Avenue west offramp from the northbound San Diego (405) Freeway in Fountain Valley is a cloverleaf with a stop sign at the top. The large trees planted next to the looping offramp have grown right to the edge of the pavement and obscure the view of the road ahead. Because the stop sign often causes cars to stop well down the ramp, this can be a considerable hazard.

Nick Beaver

Fountain Valley

Problem solved, according to Caltrans spokeswoman Pam Gorniak. Alerted to your concern, maintenance workers have trimmed back those trees.

Street Smart appears Mondays in The Times Orange County Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic, commuting and what makes it difficult to get around in Orange County. Include simple sketches if helpful. Letters may be published in upcoming columns. Please write to David Haldane, c/o Street Smart, The Times Orange County Edition, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, send faxes to (714) 966-7711 or e-mail him at David.Haldane@latimes.com. Include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted.