Speedier Ventura County Freeways Do Have Their Limits

Dear Street Smart:

It seems like drivers along the Ventura Freeway drive a lot faster when they go through Ventura County than they do along other sections of the same freeway, such as in the San Fernando Valley or north in Santa Barbara.

I was noticing that the speed limit along the freeway is 65 mph throughout Ventura County, but that it is reduced to 55 mph in other places.

Why are cars allowed to speed through Ventura County, while they have to drive much slower in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles?

Jackie Russell

Oxnard

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Dear Reader:

Freeway commuters through much of Ventura County do tend to move faster, law enforcement officials say. But that’s only because California speed-limit laws allow them to do so. While the speed limit is 65 mph throughout the length of Ventura County, it is reduced to 55 mph in much of the San Fernando Valley and in Santa Barbara County.

Rest assured, however, that the California Highway Patrol is constantly looking for speeders.

“We diligently patrol the area and we enforce the speed limit laws as adequately as we can,” CHP Officer Annie Vaught said. “If we see a violation, we write a ticket.”

You should know, however, that the highway patrol does not establish how fast cars can legally travel.

“If people think 65 mph is too fast, they can contact Caltrans or an elected official,” Vaught said.

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Dear Street Smart:

How do you go about getting a traffic light installed?

Trying to make a left turn onto Thousand Oaks Boulevard from Auburn Court in Thousand Oaks is a life or death situation. If you have a lifetime to wait, or the patience of Job, you might avoid getting hit from either direction.

The two new traffic lights on Thousand Oaks Boulevard between Duesenberg Drive and Westlake Boulevard have not helped this situation. If the westbound traffic lets up, the eastbound traffic still makes the left turn from Auburn Court unsafe.

I’ve also seen many cars making U-turns at the entrance of Auburn Court--despite the “No U-Turn” sign--to reach the post office’s drive-through mail boxes on Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

With the opening of two new shopping malls on the corners of Westlake and Thousand Oaks boulevards in the near future, the volume of traffic will only get worse.

And making that left turn from Auburn Court will only get more dangerous.

Irwin Germaine

Thousand Oaks

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Dear Reader:

Traffic officials in Thousand Oaks agree with you.

So much so, in fact, that improvements to the intersection already have been recommended and drawn up by traffic engineers.

The bad news, however, is that a new signal will probably not be built at that corner until sometime next year, said Jeff Knowles, the city’s top traffic analyst.

“Although we monitor these situations, before we actually spend a dime to design or construct a signal, we have to go to the City Council,” Knowles said. “They have the ultimate decision because they authorize the funds.”

Knowles said he held off recommending a signal for that intersection as long as he could because he did not want drivers to face a traffic light at almost every corner.

But the increasing traffic in the area, especially as a result of recent developments, prompted him to rethink his position.

“There was a chance that traffic might redistribute and traffic volumes would get lighter,” he said. “But they haven’t.”

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Dear Street Smart:

Occasionally I cut down Hillmont Avenue and turn left onto Loma Vista in Ventura on my way to the Buenaventura Mall.

The only problem is that the light at Hillmont and Loma Vista is interminable. There will be no traffic coming in either direction on Loma Vista, but it still burns red.

I’ve tried rolling back and forth to trigger the signal, but that doesn’t work. It gets to the point where I feel like driving through the red light.

Am I just hitting the light wrong, or is there something wrong with the signal? Couldn’t they adjust it so that the light changes when a car arrives at the intersection?

Brian Wilson

Ventura

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Dear Reader:

Because the intersection you are asking about is linked by computer to most of the other signals in Ventura, traffic officials are limited in how much they can adjust the timing.

Like others in the immediate vicinity, the traffic light at Hillmont and Loma Vista is on a 110-second cycle that promotes timely travel through all the streets along the length of Loma Vista, said Nazir Lalani, the city’s top traffic chief.

“It’s synchronized with Main and Loma Vista at one end, which needs the 110 seconds to service all of the traffic” Lalani said.

“At the other end, it’s coordinated with Mills and Loma Vista,” he said. “And that light needs the same cycle to stay in sync with the other signals on Mills Road.”

But Lalani said he would experiment with a shorter, 55-second cycle at that corner on weekends as a result of your question.

“I’ll have to test it and see how it works, but only on a trial basis,” he said. “We’ll know in a month whether it slows down traffic on Loma Vista too much.”