Speed Kills, So Slow Down in Neighborhoods, Many Urge

Charles Bronson never targeted speeders in his shoot-’em-up vigilante films, but judging from some of the letters this column has received in recent weeks, more than a few residents would have been happy if he had.

Parents, seniors, pet owners and even a vintage car collector have chimed in to complain about cars whizzing down neighborhood streets in a blur, paying no mind to posted speed limits, much less residents.

Which, understandably, has left those folks in a quandary.

What can we do before they kill somebody? they ask.

Aside from practicing the kind of violent vigilantism preferred by the stone-cold Bronson, concerned residents have some options, though limited.

Residents can call local law enforcement agencies to have officers step up their patrols. However, their shifts are already so busy that making special traffic patrols in a particular neighborhood becomes almost problematic.

In some instances, speed humps can be installed, but cities usually have very strict requirements on such things as traffic volumes and street-use designations, and those have to be met before the humps can be installed.

Not to mention that the process is long and steeped in the kind of bureaucratic rigmarole of study, debate and vote that makes most cringe and swear off paying another cent to the government.

Or they can do what a number of steamed residents in Thousand Oaks have done: grab their guns--radar guns, that is--and help enforce the law on their own as part of the Neighborhood Speed Awareness Program.

Enraged by the careless habits of drivers along roads such as Northam Avenue and Avenida de Los Arboles, trained residents now lie in wait around blind curves, bushes and tall fences for those with a taste for speed.

They clock the drivers, jot down their license plate numbers and send those off to police, who mail non-penalty citations to the drivers.

Police can’t do all the work, so residents concerned enough to post a letter to this keeper of the Street Smart column should perhaps step in and fill the gap.

*

Dear Street Smart:

I have a problem.

The section of Hawthorne Drive that runs from Kanan Road to Rockfield Street has a posted speed limit of 30 mph, but people sometimes cruise down there at 50 or 55 mph.

It’s a residential street with a lot of houses and children, and I’m worried that someone might get hurt if people don’t slow down.

I just want to know what we can do to take care of this.

Gary Baum

Oak Park

Dear Reader:

Well, as previously stated, there are some avenues you can pursue to make drivers obey those little black and white signs, but you are limited.

Checks with the California Highway Patrol and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department show that very few people have lodged complaints about speeders down Hawthorne Drive.

If you and your neighbors were to band together in a letter-writing campaign, you might get patrols stepped up in the neighborhood.

However, stepped-up patrols don’t mean a complete or permanent end to the problem. Officers are usually permitted only a little time each day to make the extra patrols, and those end after a certain period.

Speed humps are definitely not an option, because the road does not meet state requirements for traffic volume.

Or you can follow the path blazed by your like-minded neighbors in Thousand Oaks, who started a volunteer corps of radar-gun-toting monitors.

That, however, would take a lot of work: organizing neighborhood residents and approaching both the city and the Sheriff’s Department with your idea.

Then there’s the option favored by members of the Knolls, a quirky hamlet just outside Simi Valley in the Santa Susana Mountains.

Along narrow roads that twist and turn around massive sandstone precipices, residents have erected their own signs reminding drivers to keep their speed to a minimum. One, fashioned from plywood and painted to look like a real road sign, reads “Slow the #$%*@! Down.”

Residents said it helps because drivers usually slow or stop to look at it.

*

Dear Street Smart:

My concern is the intersection of Foothill Road and Victoria Avenue in Ventura.

It has recently been repaved and re-striped, and I don’t believe it was done properly. Turning from Victoria onto Foothill, it appears to me, has become very confusing.

There are two marked lanes at the intersection. The far left lane allows cars to turn left onto Foothill or go straight. The middle lane is for cars turning right, while the far right lane isn’t marked for anything, but people still use it to turn right.

I’m concerned that if two cars turn right from the middle and right lanes into the one lane on Foothill, there will be an accident.

While I think they did a marvelous job repaving the street, I think they should re-stripe the intersection to make it more understandable.

Ron Williams

Ventura

Dear Reader:

First of all, re-striping the intersection at Foothill Road and Victoria Avenue would be, according to Ventura traffic engineer Nazir Lalani, unfeasible due to the costs of peeling off layers of the expensive paint used on roads--and digging up the pavement to relocate traffic sensors.

But take heart, it will all make sense in about a year.

Crews from the city of Ventura repaved and re-striped the intersection in anticipation of a new housing project that is to be developed on the property across from the Victoria Avenue terminus along Foothill.

When developers begin construction, Victoria will extend into the project and the lane markings will change. The far right, unmarked lane of which you speak will become the right-turn lane from Victoria onto Foothill, and the middle lane will be for all traffic headed into the development. The left lane will remain the same.

“Right now, I admit the intersection is kind of funky,” Lalani said. “But it will all make sense soon enough.”

*

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 Coll Metcalfe, Los Angeles Times, 1445 Los Angeles Ave., Suite 208, Simi Valley 93065, or call the Sound Off line at 653-7546. Include a simple sketch if needed to help explain. In every case include your full name, address, and both evening and daytime telephone numbers. Street Smart cannot answer anonymous queries, and might edit your letter or phone message due to space constraints.