Study Finds No Need for Traffic Light

Dear Traffic Talk:

Is it possible to put in a traffic signal, perhaps one pedestrian-controlled, between Riverside Drive and Moorpark Avenue on Coldwater Canyon Boulevard?

You answered an inquiry about limiting right turns from the Coldwater Canyon offramp. The transportation engineers said that the limiting of right turns would impede the flow of traffic, resulting in backups onto the freeway.

But the problem still exists. It is especially dangerous for children trying to cross Coldwater Canyon Boulevard.

The heavy traffic on that street moves very fast because of the distance between the lights on Riverside Drive and Moorpark Street.

A signal would slow traffic down and give children a chance to safely get to the sidewalk on the east side of Coldwater Canyon.

Anita Marlin

Sherman Oaks

Dear Anita:

There are no plans to install a traffic light between Riverside Drive and Moorpark Street, according to Irwin Chodash, a transportation engineer for the Department of Transportation.

The department chose to study the installation of a traffic signal at Coldwater Canyon and Sarah Street because this location is about midway along this section of the roadway.

Chodash said transportation department officials conducted a comprehensive survey of the intersection by reviewing both pedestrian and vehicular traffic volume, reported accidents and the physical conditions of the area.

The results of the review fail to satisfy any of the nationally accepted guidelines for traffic signal control, Chodash said.

Chodash said that a complete analysis of the traffic at this intersection indicates the existing traffic controls are providing adequate regulation.

Signals are recommended at intersections where relatively large volumes of conflicting traffic prevail and where a need for more restrictive control of right-of-way assignment has been demonstrated, Chodash said.

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Dear Traffic Talk:

For about six years I have endured driving the horribly paved Cahuenga Boulevard north of the Ventura Freeway and Magnolia Boulevard, especially when I am driving west from Cahuenga Boulevard to the freeway. Are there any plans to pave these streets?

Faye Swist

Toluca Lake

Dear Faye:

Although minor street maintenance will continue, no major road repairs to Cahuenga Boulevard between Magnolia Boulevard and the Ventura Freeway are scheduled until between 1999 and 2000 under the Los Angeles Department of Transportation Bureau of Street Maintenance resurfacing program, according to bureau director Greg Scott.

The resurfacing, however, is on hold until April 1, 2000, because there are sewer repairs needed in that area.

Scott said that although a street is included as a project in the bureau’s resurfacing program it must receive a construction clearance from utility companies responsible for structures in or beneath the street surface.

Scott said that if a utility company has work scheduled within the roadway, street resurfacing will be deferred until the utility work is completed.

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