How Can One Stop Useless Stop Signs?

Dear Traffic Talk:

There are two unnecessary stop signs near my home.

The signs are at an obscure side-street corner and contribute nothing to the safe negotiation of the intersection. No one pays any attention to them.

Signs with no credibility, inviting drivers to ignore them, not only can get drivers into bad habits, but also into a distrustful attitude toward all traffic signs. Better that such signs are removed.

How does one go about getting useless stop signs removed?

Allan E. Edwards

Sherman Oaks

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Dear Allen:

To get a sign removed, first a request must be made in writing to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, at 19040 Vanowen St., Reseda, CA 91335. Send a detailed explanation of the problem, including major concerns and the location.

A traffic engineer then will go to the area in question and investigate to determine if further actions need to be taken, a department spokesman said.

Dear Traffic Talk:

When entering any freeway, one almost immediately sees signs denoting the next three exits and the distance to each.

However, upon entering a diamond lane, there is no “next exit” information.

I recently entered the diamond lane on the northbound San Diego Freeway at Burbank Boulevard, expecting to leave the diamond lane in time to exit the freeway at Roscoe Boulevard, a distance of four miles from Burbank Boulevard. Wrong! I was restricted to the diamond lane for another three miles, until Devonshire Street, a total of seven diamond lane miles without a legal break.

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Wouldn’t it be feasible to have signs at each diamond lane entrance, giving the distance of the next place to exit?

Abe Landsman

Van Nuys

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Dear Abe:

There is not money available to erect signs displaying distances between carpool exits.

Funds are first distributed for road repairs and maintenance of the roadways, said Pat Reid, a spokeswoman for Caltrans, especially this year, in which many freeways were damaged by heavy rains.

Jeanne Bonfilio, a spokeswoman for Caltrans, wanted to clear up some confusion about previously printed information regarding Caltrans repair work on the north-south Ventura Freeway. There was a question about the freeway direction, since it is an east-west route in the San Fernando Valley.

The answer:

Although part of the Ventura Freeway in the Valley runs in an east-west direction, the overall freeway is a designated north-south route by state transportation engineers--hence Caltrans uses the terms southbound and northbound lanes when referring to the San Fernando Valley area, she said.

The Caltrans emergency pavement rehabilitation and pothole repair project--to fix El Nino storm damage--will continue overnight tonight on the Ventura Freeway in various locations in the West Valley.

As many as three southbound lanes will be closed from Kanan Road to Lost Hills Road from 10 tonight to 5 a.m. Saturday.

There will be signs to assist commuters, Bonfilio said.

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