Commuters Simply Don’t All Fit on Moorpark Freeway

Force ‘em though you may, some things just won’t fit.

Gold-plated lowrider rims on a Rolls Royce? Feathers on a bull.

Three kids, all their camping gear and your Big Gulp Slurpee in a Toyota Tercel? Ten tons of stuff in a 5-pound car.

And anything you choose to write in that tiny line on the speeding summons under “Guilty With an Explanation”? Futility incarnate.

Try omitting needless words when describing how you were forced to accelerate to 72 mph in rush-hour traffic on the Ventura Freeway because the drug-addled teenagers swerving back and forth just 8 inches behind your rear bumper in the souped-up Honda with the blinding quartz-halogen fog lights would not back off long enough for you to squeeze out of the fast lane and almost shoved you into the carpool lane where everyone else was doing 78. Strunk and White are spinning in their graves.

Likewise, rush hour on the clog-prone Moorpark Freeway. It seems as though the entire populations of Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks are either scrambling up its six narrow onramps in the morning or clawing their way down them at 2 mph in the evening.

How do you swallow an elephant? One bite at a time. But it sure would be nice if Caltrans gave you a bigger fork.

Dear Street Smart:

When is Caltrans going to install traffic meters on the southbound Moorpark Freeway onramps at Avenida de Los Arboles and Janss Road?

With the increased traffic in the county, this is a bottleneck in the morning commute. Droves of cars enter after every signal cycle on the surface streets, slowing the freeway traffic to a crawl while the entering cars try to merge.

Metered onramps seem a simple expedient that would help soothe the frazzled nerves of the morning commute bunch.

Thanks for your help.

Fred Besse

Moorpark

Dear Reader:

We hope you’re reading this sitting down. With no sharp objects nearby.

Before you’ve had that coffee.

The Ventura County Transportation Department plans to have Caltrans widen California 23 because of the increase in traffic volume--by 2010. There is no set construction date yet, says Caltrans spokeswoman Patricia Reid.

However, Caltrans engineers are investigating the need for onramp meters as you read this, so that relief may come much sooner than the first of the millennium.

Such meters are already running in the mornings in Simi Valley, filtering commuters onto the eastbound Ronald Reagan Freeway (118) in controlled packs. Reid says the westbound meters have been left dark because traffic volume has not required their use, but Caltrans will turn them on if things get too busy.

Coupled with new carpool lanes just over the border in Los Angeles County, the meters have eased some of the strain that the strong growth of east Ventura County has put on freeway systems that were but a twinkle in a planner’s eye more than a decade ago.

Meanwhile, we hope denizens of the Moorpark Freeway will stay loose during that ol’ demon commute. Patience and counting to 10 are no substitutes for moving at 60, but they’re a heckuva lot better than crumpled fenders and burst veins in your forehead.

Dear Street Smart:

The three-mile stretch along California 34 (Lewis and Somis Roads) between California 118 and Las Posas Road is fairly treacherous in spots, and most of it has an appropriate speed limit of 40 mph.

But for traffic heading south toward Camarillo, the speed limit suddenly increases to 50 mph just three-tenths of a mile (I measured) from the busy, stop-lighted intersection of California 34 and Las Posas.

Prudence tells me that whoever determines the speed limit knows what they’re doing and rarely makes mistakes. But common sense tells me that--for safety’s sake--it’s not a good idea to increase the speed limit shortly before a busy intersection.

For southbound traffic, wouldn’t it be better and safer to move the 50 mph sign to the far (south) side of the intersection and leave the full stretch before the intersection at 40 mph?

Jack Burden

Camarillo

Dear Reader:

If common sense were bottled, we would all fill our no-spill mugs to the brim each morning.

Or maybe Detroit, Tokyo and Trollhattan would bolt the stuff into the chassis of every Duster, Charade and Saab 900S sold in America.

And if wishes were fishes, we’d sell a lot more newspaper.

But Street Smart’s unified-field theory of speed limits (when squared against our axiom of sneaker-to-horsepower weight ratios) posits this: For every 10 mph of speed allotted by The Man, the average motorist will be jammin’ 3 mph faster.

So the folks who set the limits--sensibly--do so as calculatedly as possible.

Caltrans engineers are (as you read this) updating the existing speed zone data on California 34 between Oxnard Boulevard (California 1) and Los Angeles Avenue (California 118), says Caltrans’ Patricia Reid.

The engineers will reevaluate the posted speed limits, then send new and revised limit recommendations to local agencies and the California Highway Patrol “for review and concurrence,” she says.

Watch those signs, folks. “Honest, officer, the limit used to be 50!” just doesn’t cut it. We know. We’ve tried it.

Dear Street Smart:

At the redesigned intersection of 5th and C streets in Oxnard, there is a left-turn lane from eastbound 5th Street to northbound C Street.

But before you make this left turn, if you look at the right-hand corner of this intersection, there is also a sign that says, “NO LEFT TURN.” What is this sign for?

Sarath Abeyweera

Ventura

Dear Reader:

Ah, a mystery sign. Almost as fun as the one we encountered last summer in the middle of the northwestern Nevada desert that said, cryptically, “LIMBO.”

Oxnard traffic engineer Joe Genovese says the “NO LEFT TURN” sign once applied to the driveway from the parking lot on the southwest corner of 5th and C.

But that driveway was relocated as part of the 5th Street realignment, and the sign is no longer needed.

So, he says, they yanked it.

AHOY, READERS! Just a gentle Street Smart reminder that anything goes in this column. We are always happy to answer questions about bad intersections, crummy drivers and confusing laws. But we invite you to send queries on absolutely any topic regarding the business of getting from A to B on Ventura County’s roads, whether by car, bike, locomotive or Brahma bull. Don’t be shy. We’ve got a lulu coming up. . . .

NEXT: Smog ducking.

Peeved? Baffled? Miffed? Or merely perplexed? Street Smart answers 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, 93 S. Chestnut St., Ventura 93001. Include a simple sketch if needed to help explain. E-mail us at Mack.Reed@latimes.com or call our Sound Off line, 653-7546. In any case, include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Street Smart cannot answer anonymous queries and might edit your letter.