Knox Invites Public’s Ideas on Traffic Snag

Gridlock at the junction between the Ventura and San Diego freeways is growing worse and the interchange could become virtually impassable in a few years if nothing is done soon to ease traffic congestion, says Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles).

With 555,000 vehicles a day, the interchange is the fourth busiest in Southern California, said Caltrans traffic census coordinator Nick Jones. Jones added that the traffic count at the interchange has increased 12% since 1988, when the average was 495,000 vehicles per day.

To hear public concerns and possible solutions to the gridlock, Knox will hold a meeting with Valley residents Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Encino Park auditorium, 16953 Ventura Blvd.

“The pace of the potential solutions I’ve heard so far would make a glacier look like a racehorse and the problem is getting worse each year,” Knox said. “If legislation is needed to solve the problem I can work on it from that direction, or if the Legislature just needs a good swift kick in the pants, I can do that too.”

Possible solutions suggested to him by state transportation officials include creating additional lanes of traffic at the interchange and eliminating the Haskell offramp on the Ventura Freeway, Knox said. He worried that those proposals could be snagged in bureaucratic red tape.

“Developing these solutions would take years and in the end nothing may come of them,” he said. “But there’s a great deal that I can do to speed up the process, and I hope that someone in the public has a better solution than I’ve heard so far.”

During the upcoming meeting, people may express concerns. Officials from Caltrans, the state Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will answer questions.

For more information, call Knox’s office at (323) 932-1201.