Minor Fixes Won’t Do Where Kanan and Roadside Meet

Dear Street Smart:

I work in Westlake and often eat lunch at some of the restaurants off Roadside Drive in the nearby community of Agoura Hills.

The problem is, every time I exit the southbound Ventura Freeway at Kanan Road to get to Loozy Anne’s or an eatery at the Whizin’s shopping center, there seems to be a near accident at the corner of Roadside and Kanan.

The traffic coming northbound on Kanan never seems to yield to those folks like myself who are trying to turn left to get to the nearby restaurants. I feel like I have to take my life into my hands every time I go to lunch there.

Can’t they put in a green arrow or something at the traffic light to make it safer?

Kirsten Jones, Thousand Oaks

Dear Reader:

Traffic officials in Agoura Hills are all too familiar with your complaint.

So much so, in fact, that they have been tinkering with small ways to improve safety and circulation at that corner for years, said Ed Cline, the traffic engineer for the city of Agoura Hills.

The trouble is, there are too many traffic lights at that interchange, he said.

“The observation your reader makes is true,” he said. “There are already three signals there, and there simply is not enough green time to allow any more particular movement at that interchange.”

Long-range plans call for reconfiguration of the entire interchange, Cline said. But at this point, there is no money set aside for that multimillion-dollar project.

Meantime, Cline said he is testing cheaper ways to improve traffic and make the corner safer.

Kanan Road drivers “need to leave a little gap there so the left turn can be made,” he said. “Drivers in lanes 1 and 2 are usually pretty courteous, but the lane 3 drivers closest to the curb are not so courteous.”

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Dear Street Smart:

Recently, Caltrans attempted to repair two sections of California 33 in Oak View and Mira Monte.

The resurfacing between Encino Drive and Santa Ana Way was performed on a curve, which is now not only rippled so severely that a car’s rear wheels actually move laterally while traveling south, but the street is so slick that I fear spin-outs when the rainy season begins.

The same situation exists farther down California 33, just past the Rancho Arnaz fruit stand. Perhaps Caltrans should have a private contractor perform this work properly.

Michael Robinson, Oak View

Dear Reader:

State transportation officials say the conditions you describe are the result of a job that is not yet finished. They said that by the time the work is done, that section of California 33 will be smooth and improved.

But it will be at least another month before your commute is again as smooth as can be.

“Caltrans crews have been doing preliminary maintenance work on this section of Highway 33 the past two weeks,” said Pat Reid, a Caltrans spokeswoman based in Los Angeles.

“Work was done to smooth out the road surface in preparation for a $700,000 paving contract,” she said. “Weather permitting, work is scheduled to begin in early December on a contract to repave an 8-mile section of Route 33 north from Nye Road.”

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Dear Street Smart:

I don’t get to read all of your columns, so I don’t know if this situation has been addressed before.

When heading north on the Ventura Freeway and exiting at Victoria in Ventura, the offramp heads down into a tight right turn. At the bottom of the offramp is a signal, and the right-turn lanes make a tight, blind corner uphill to another signal probably only 200 feet away.

Every time I come down the offramp, if I get the first green light, I am probably traveling about 30 mph when I go around the corner--and Wham!--often there are cars stopped at the next light.

That leaves me only a very short stopping distance after I can see the waiting cars.

When I get caught at the second light, I see in my rearview mirror the ashen faces of other drivers as they come around that corner and brake wildly to avoid my car.

Isn’t there anything that can be done?

Sylvia Soto, Thousand Oaks

Dear Reader:

City officials already have planned sweeping improvements to the Victoria Avenue interchange at the Ventura Freeway.

But the situation you ask about is included in the second phase of the improvement project, which still has not been funded, said Nazir Lalani, Ventura’s traffic engineer.

But there is some hope.

“The Victoria-Walker signal will be moved north to make more room,” he said. “There’s a lot of truck traffic that stops at that nearby refueling station.

“When those trucks come out to go south on Victoria to go north on the freeway, they have virtually no stacking area,” he said. “So we’re separating them.

Lalani said that is only part of the solution. He plans to seek federal grants to pay for the second phase of the overall project to redesign the interchange.

“We’re going to submit this project for funding and see if we can start construction in 1998 or 1999,” he said.