Outline of Body Chalked Up as Ojai Freeway Whodunit

Dear Street Smart:

On the southbound Ojai Freeway, between the offramps for Canada Larga and Shell roads, on the cement is the outline of a man’s body--like the ones you see in a television murder, when the police outline the body with chalk.

But this one is done with paint.

My question is who did it, and why?

Edward Siebenthal

Oak View

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Dear Reader:

It appears that you’ve stumbled onto a true mystery.

The origin of the outline of a dead body is news to Caltrans Supt. Wayne Johnson, who said he doubts there is any legitimate reason that it should be painted on the highway.

Johnson pledged to investigate and take care of things.

“I’m going to send somebody out there,” he said. “If it’s obviously not done by the police, and I don’t know of any murders that occurred out there, we’ll do something to remove it.”

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Dear Street Smart:

What’s taking so long to fix the Simi Valley Freeway?

I drive a truck up and down the 118 every night of the week, and I don’t see hardly anything going on. Work has been dragging on for 2 1/2 years, including the earthquake repair work.

They put up these barriers that we have to deal with night in and night out, but it seems like they just stick them up and leave them.

I don’t know where else to turn. I can’t get any answers from Caltrans.

Gary Mathieu

Canyon Country

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Dear Reader:

Although it may not look like it, Caltrans officials say they have been making improvements to widen that 12-mile section of the freeway for two years.

The $22.4-million effort to add lanes to the Simi Valley Freeway is almost completed, said Caltrans spokeswoman Pat Reid.

By early next year, the work will be done, landscaping will have been planted and new park-and-ride lots will be open at Winnetka Avenue and Chatsworth Drive, she said.

“Engineers hope to be able to open the new High Occupancy Vehicle (carpool)

lanes and a new eastbound mixed-flow lane to the public this October,” Reid said.

“The estimated completion date for the entire project is the end of December,” she said.

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Dear Street Smart:

I’m a new resident of the county. But it seems like the stoplights are appreciably longer in Camarillo and Ventura than they are in my native Los Angeles.

Is this my imagination, or not?

Carmichael A. Smith-Low

Ventura

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Dear Reader:

People spend much time and effort making traffic circulation as efficient as possible not only in Camarillo and Ventura, but throughout Southern California and beyond.

According to Tom Fox, the top traffic official in Camarillo, the wait at most intersections in his city is between 90 and 110 seconds, depending on the timing of nearby signals.

“We don’t have a standard as far as how long a signal lasts,” said Fox. “It depends not only on the amount of traffic demand at the intersection, but also how much traffic is traveling along the entire street.”

Nonetheless, people like Fox are constantly monitoring the timing of signals along their various street corners, and tinkering with the outcome.

“We continue to monitor it and adjust it as traffic patterns change,” Fox said. “But they’re very similar.

“It’s probably not their imagination,” he added. “It’s more likely a factor of not studying signals for a long period of time.”