Seeing Red When Drivers Run Stop Lights

Dear Street Smart:

I commute from Laguna Niguel to Costa Mesa. In my travels, I witness at least two and sometimes three incidents of people running red lights every day. These incidents don’t appear to be accidents; the drivers accelerate to dangerous speeds to run the lights. And the lights aren’t yellow--they are flat-out red. Last week, an Orange County bus deliberately ran a red light at the corner of Scenic Avenue and Harbor Boulevard, nearly hitting my car as I pulled out on the green.

What are the penalties for running red lights? I’ve heard they are negligible. Also, what are the police doing about enforcing the existing law? It doesn’t appear that much is happening in this regard. From my point of view, this escalating refusal to obey the law is as dangerous--if not more so--than drunk driving.

Robin Connal

Laguna Niguel

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The penalty for running a red light in Orange County is $104, according to Bert Bream, assistant executive officer at Municipal Court in Westminster.

Yet people do it all the time, said a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol. While the number of people running red lights might appear to be significantly increasing, Steve Kohler said, figures show serious violations are holding steady.

In 1995, according to statistics compiled by the department, 238 fatal collisions statewide were attributed to drivers running red lights or stop signs--about the same number as in 1991.

Law enforcement officers routinely stop anyone seen running a red light, Kohler said, but “we can’t be everywhere all of the time.” State lawmakers officially recognized the problem last year by enacting legislation enabling cities to install video cameras at intersections designed to photograph the license plates of violators. Only a handful of California cities have done so.

Kohler said that it would have been a good idea for you to have jotted down the license number of the bus you saw breaking the law and reported it to the Orange County Transportation Authority.

Kohler also offered this advice: “When the light turns green, count a couple of seconds and look both ways before you go. Just because you have a green light doesn’t mean that that’s going to make you invulnerable. You can have the right of way and be dead right.”

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Dear Street Smart:

With significant portions of the outfield seating removed from Anaheim Stadium, the large banks of stadium lighting shine more directly onto the Orange Freeway. At night, this will be a real problem for southbound drivers as they head toward the Orange Crush. Even now, with around-the-clock construction going on, some of the lights are on and right in the eyes of rush-hour drivers. I can only imagine what a blinding experience it will be on game night with all the lights on.

Is there any plan to modify the lighting on Anaheim Stadium, such as to direct it more at the field or shield the lights so they are not in the eyes of southbound drivers?

Tim Harrison

Laguna Beach

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The problem will be taken care of before the beginning of the baseball season late next month, according to stadium spokesman Bill Robertson.

The reason some of the lights are aimed toward the freeway, Robertson said, is that they are still under construction. “We are still tweaking the lighting and putting new lights in,” he said. “Eventually they will be pointed toward the field.”

Robertson said that yours is the first complaint he’s heard regarding the new stadium lighting. The lights are being installed as part of a $100-million stadium renovation by the Walt Disney Co. and the city of Anaheim.

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Dear Street Smart:

Near the city limits of Santa Ana, there are a number of what appear to be green mechanical traffic signs of some type. There are two at MacArthur and Harbor boulevards. So what are they and when do they do something?

Donald Sinex

Huntington Beach

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The signs are electronic directional signs, also known as “trailblazer signs,” according to T.C. Sutaria, traffic engineer for the city of Santa Ana. The purpose of the signs is to redirect traffic from congested freeways to those that are less congested.

All told, Sutaria said, there are eight such signs in three vicinities, all on MacArthur Boulevard, at the intersections of Harbor Boulevard, Fairview Street and Bristol Street. The signs are near ramps leading to various freeways, Sutaria said. When a given freeway is congested, he said, the appropriate sign exhibits an electronic display message directing traffic to a freeway onramp that is less crowded.

The signs are controlled from a traffic management center on the third floor of City Hall, Sutaria said, where traffic engineers electronically monitor conditions throughout the city with video cameras and sensors embedded in the pavement.

Street Smart appears Mondays in The Times Orange County Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic, commuting and what makes it difficult to get around in Orange County. Include simple sketches if helpful. Letters may be published in upcoming columns. Please write to David Haldane, c/o Street Smart, The Times Orange County Edition, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, send faxes to (714) 966-7711 or e-mail him at David.Haldane@latimes.com. Include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted.