Stalking the Troublesome Tree--and Related Problems
It might be two drenching weeks of relentless winter downpours talking here, but for some reason, Street Smart’s mailbag this week has turned green.
Not the color of money you just shelled out for the engine rebuilding that started out as “a funny little whizzing noise.”
Not the fresh, young green of newly licensed, 16-year-old drivers in springtime. Nor the sickly green those teens turn upon learning the staggering sum all drivers must pay to even COME ANYWHERE NEAR A STEERING WHEEL.
Nor is it the iffy green that you swore that traffic light was glowing back there when you bombed through the intersection at 57--honest, Officer, it was green or at least it was yellow and besides the speedometer’s busted, I swear to God and that guy hit me first, oh jeez, PLEASE don’t give me a ticket, I just got out of traffic school. . . .
No.
Street Smart’s letters are tinted with the green of trees.
Trees are among the most immobile, innocent, nice-as-bunnies kind of road hazard out there.
Many extremely careful drivers don’t give them a second thought--until they realize that it was a drooping live oak that let them pull into an intersection only to notice a chrome Peterbilt emblem suddenly bearing down on them at 4 feet above eye level with 80 tons of bananas behind it.
Simply put: Be on guard. Trees cannot be trusted.
Dear Street Smart:
This problem occurs when leaving the K mart / Staples shopping center on Victoria Avenue, just south of Ralston Street in Ventura. An exit takes you out of the lot between the Carl’s Jr. and the IHOP restaurant.
You can only make a right turn onto Victoria. And as you sit there waiting for traffic to clear, everything is great except for one little ol’ problem: there’s a little tree planted in the sidewalk, right in your line of vision.
It’s almost as if it were put there purposely to obstruct your view of oncoming traffic. I can’t count how many times I’ve driven out, not being sure there are no cars coming.
Please check it out, and I hope the next time I’m leaving that parking lot, guesswork will not be a factor in my exit.
Donna J. Athens
Ventura
Dear Reader:
After repeatedly venturing into that plaza over the years to forage for microwave popcorn to feed his fearsome tribe of hungry colleagues, Street Smart is intimately familiar with that tree. And the guesswork involved in surviving it.
The tree is not so much an eyesore as it is a hair clog in the drainpipe of your sight lines. But enough metaphor-mangling. Let’s talk to the chief plumber: “If it’s in the public right of way, it’s a city tree,” said Nazir Lalani, Ventura traffic engineer. “We’ll have to have somebody take a look at it and see what we can do with it.”
The city often receives complaints about vision-blocking trees and usually is able to satisfy the caller with a quick trim, he says.
“Usually, the parks people don’t like us yanking trees out completely, so we’ll send out a vegetation trim request,” he said.
Dear Street Smart:
I face a problem when entering the east lanes of Channel Islands Boulevard from Wheelhouse Avenue in Port Hueneme. The bushes to the right have been trimmed down, but not far enough.
This makes it difficult to read the oncoming traffic, which travels at 45 mph or more, and very hard to know which lane the traffic is traveling in.
Also, you’ve probably answered this many times, but what does the “E” stand for on the license plates of government vehicles?
Alden L. McMurtry
Oxnard
Dear Reader:
By the time you read this, Port Hueneme workers will have already given those shaggy oleanders their annual (sometimes more-than-annual) coiffure.
Port Hueneme Assistant Engineer Les Leach says city crews recently cut the greenery down to the height of the chain-link fence lining the concrete drainage culvert between the eastbound and westbound lanes of Channel Islands Boulevard. So your line of sight should be clear now as you venture onto the bridge between them from Wheelhouse.
Oh, and “E” means Exempt. As in, those vehicles are exempt from ever having to pay registration renewal fees, because that would be robbing, ‘er, taxing Peter to pay Peter. Literally.
Extra bonus trivia points if you knew this: A plate with the “E” surrounded by a diamond signifies a state vehicle, while vehicles sporting an “E” in an octagon are city or county property.
Dear Street Smart:
When you travel down Lewis Road and turn right onto Daily Drive for a short block, you reach a stop sign.
This gives the right of way to cars using the offramp there.
When looking left to see cars coming down the ramp, you see a large tree that impairs your vision. The tree is growing taller every year.
Could this tree be removed?
W. P. Grider
Camarillo
Dear Reader:
Street Smart hastens to point out that whether you believe in Darwinism or Creationism, the trees were here first.
That said, we also note that Darwin believed in survival of the fittest, the Bible says God gave man dominion over all the plants and animals, and a chain saw beats a eucalyptus--and a royal flush--any day of the week.
But Camarillo Traffic Engineer Tom Fox says the tree likely grows on private soil, which limits his ability to have it trimmed. However, he says his office will take a look at it and--if it is impairing sight lines--encourage the property owner to prune it back.
“Government does not have the ability to go on private property and tell people to remove things that they own, unless it violates a city ordinance, some kind of law or the conditions of approval of the property,” Fox said. “But in most cases, when we do approach the property owner, we do it in a courteous way, and most people in most cases are willing to help us out.”
If nothing else, Fox says, property owners should worry about the liability they might incur by allowing a hazard to exist on their property.
NEXT WEEK: If we get enough letters, an excursion into Miss Manners Land, road-wise. What brand of highway rudeness just completely burns you up, and how can Street Smart help?
Miffed? Baffled? Peeved? Or merely perplexed? Street Smart can answer your most probing questions about the joys and horrors of driving around Ventura County. Write to: Street Smart, c/o Mack Reed, Los Angeles Times Ventura County Edition, 1445 Los Angeles Ave., Room 208, Simi Valley 93065. Include a simple sketch if needed to help explain your question. Or call our Sound Off line, 653-7546. In either case, include your full name, address, and day and evening phone numbers. Street Smart cannot answer anonymous queries, and might edit your letter.
