Intersection Is Not on a Collision Course, Officials Say

Dear Street Smart:

At peak traffic hours, it is a frightening experience to exit from Conejo School Road onto Hillcrest Drive.

Automobiles come speeding down Hillcrest Drive, past Conejo School Road, sometimes missing the curve in the road and, in a few cases, have knocked down a light standard.

There is no way anyone can see cars coming up Hillcrest from the west, due to a rise in the road, and one has to guess whether to take a chance and turn onto Conejo School Road.

There have been many, many scary incidents. I myself have been rear-ended by a speeding car coming from the west after turning onto Hillcrest. It was impossible to see the automobile.

One possible solution would be to place stop signs at the corner of Hillcrest and Conejo School Road.

Morton Greene

Thousand Oaks

Dear Reader:

Thousand Oaks traffic officials have been watching that corner for years.

So closely, in fact, that five years ago they opted to widen that section of Hillcrest Drive from two lanes to four.

Since then there have been very few incidents, traffic analyst Jeff Knowles said. Actually, there has not even been one collision reported there in the past two years.

“Based on the information I have right now, there is not a collision problem correctable by stop signs,” Knowles said. “It does not meet the federal and state guidelines for stop signs.”

What’s more, he said, tinkering with the corner at this point could only create more problems. “This location can only get less safe, because right now there have been no collisions,” he said.

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Dear Street Smart:

How much longer must we who drive north on the Ventura Freeway through Oxnard to Ventura put up with the accidents and delays because of the loss of one lane and the merging of the Pacific Coast Highway?

This looks easy to fix compared to Santa Barbara’s problems with U.S. 101.

Also, the southbound California 33 onramp at Shell Road is very short and dangerous. The nearby bottling company has their trucks use the Canada Larga Road onramp to go south to Ventura, even though they are closer to Shell Road.

Will the Shell and Stanley onramps be updated any time soon?

Bill Anderson

Ventura

Dear Reader:

Hunker down for a long wait.

It looks like the state Department of Transportation has postponed any improvements at the junction of the Ventura Freeway and Pacific Coast Highway.

“In the last listing that Caltrans came out with, it will be ready for complete plans and specifications in November 1999,” said Nazir Lalani, the Ventura traffic engineer who is monitoring the project.

“Usually that means a year later they would list the project,” he said.

In response to your other question, Lalani said he hears this complaint all the time. But, he said, Caltrans concluded that the improvements are not warranted at this time.

Nonetheless, city officials plan to require that the on- and offramps be upgraded whenever a new development is constructed near that property. It could be several years, however, before any new development is built.

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Dear Street Smart:

A query and incomplete response was printed in a recent column, when Michelle Johnson complained, “Why don’t they widen the freeway there in downtown Santa Barbara so that cars don’t back up for miles each weekend?”

The response from Caltrans’ Joe Blommer was: “We’ve come up with a plan to widen the freeway from Milpas down to the Ventura County line, but there is a great deal of resistance on the part of the city of Santa Barbara to go through with the project.”

Both the city and county of Santa Barbara are listening to their community and transportation experts.

Caltrans’ very controversial proposed widening from Santa Barbara to Carpinteria has been the subject of extensive scrutiny over the past three years. Ten thousand people signed petitions opposing the widening.

The only time Highway 101 is slow, except for traffic accidents, is during summer Sunday afternoons in the southbound lane. That’s only 0.3% of the time.

To address Michelle’s concern, perhaps she could stay for dinner in Santa Barbara, catch a concert or a play and go home when traffic is flowing normally.

Ralph Fertig

Santa Barbara

Dear Reader:

Your points are well made.

But not everyone has the time and resources to take in dinner and the theater after commuting on a weekend.

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.