Sometimes, Life Is Rough--Especially on the Freeways

Dear Street Smart:

Has anyone ever asked you about the washboard-like surfaces of some stretches of aging freeways?

On the eastbound Artesia Freeway through old Anaheim, and on the southbound Santa Ana Freeway after Manchester Avenue and South Street, there are a couple of places that would make you swear your wheels are about to fly off and all four tires are flat.

What causes these surface changes? Will they ever be fixed?

Phyllis I. Lewis

Anaheim

The road surface that makes you feel like you’re losing your wheels could be caused by a variety of things, including pavement material, traffic volume, weather and big rigs.

On the southbound Santa Ana Freeway near Manchester Avenue, substantial widening and improvement work is in progress and should make for a smoother ride by the end of the year, Caltrans spokeswoman Pam Gorniak said.

However, Caltrans currently has no plans to resurface the eastbound Artesia Freeway in Anaheim, she said.

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Dear Street Smart:

My question concerns a new street light installed at Seapoint Street and Pacific Coast Highway in the city of Huntington Beach.

The Seapoint connection to PCH was recently completed. There is a left-turn lane to Seapoint as you are heading south on PCH, but there is no right-turn lane into Seapoint heading north on PCH.

The speed limit is 50 mph and there is no lane to make a right turn into Seapoint, which is a major potential traffic accident waiting to happen. There is enough room for a left-turn lane, so I would think that space also is available for a right-turn lane. It would sure make this intersection much safer. Thanks for looking into this.

Rob Fishel

Huntington Beach

Initial plans did not include a right-turn lane based on factors such as traffic volume, roadway design, available right of way and traffic patterns, Caltrans and city officials said. Consider, for example, that drivers making a right turn at the T-intersection do not have to worry about eastbound traffic, since there is none.

“I don’t perceive that there is a need for a right-turn lane at that intersection,” said Jim Otterson, Huntington Beach’s city traffic engineer. “There’s just not enough of a heavy traffic volume there.”

Those traveling in the opposite direction, however, must wait for the northbound PCH traffic to clear before turning left, prompting a possible traffic backup and, therefore, the need for a separate turning lane, authorities said.

Nevertheless, the concern has been forwarded to one of Caltrans’ traffic engineers for consideration, Gorniak said.

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Dear Street Smart:

Could you find out why there is no crosswalk on the north side of the intersection at Bristol Street and Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa? It looks like there was a crosswalk there, and it was taken out.

If you cross Bristol Street on the south side of the intersection and continue on Town Center Drive east, there is no sidewalk. The north side of Town Center Drive does have a sidewalk, but a pedestrian would have to cross three times to get to it from the northwest corner. I have seen people cross on the north side as well as walking in the street on the south side of Town Center Drive to avoid having to cross three times.

Michael Porter

Huntington Beach

The path across the north side of Bristol Street at Town Center Drive is a bit of a suburban labyrinth for pedestrians, but adding a crosswalk would further clog traffic at one of the busiest intersections in the city, officials said.

“Having a crosswalk there would mean that we would need to allow more time for pedestrians to make a safe crossing, which means less time for traffic,” said Peter Naghavi, Costa Mesa’s manager of transportation services.

City officials decided to remove the north-side crosswalk a couple of years ago because of high traffic in that area, Naghavi said, and there’s no chance that it would be reinstalled any time soon.

“All that a pedestrian would have to do is go to the south side of the intersection. . . . Yes, that means having to cross three times instead of going straight through,” he said. “But it’s already so congested in that area, we don’t want to create more congestion.”

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.