Street Won’t Be Repaved for a Year

Dear Traffic Talk:

It always amazes me how certain streets are selected for repair. The 8300 block of Canoga Avenue in Canoga Park is a washboard and has been that way for over eight years. Traffic must be in the thousands of vehicles per day.

Yet in the hills of Sherman Oaks, entire residential streets are repaved, minor cracks in a cul-de-sac in Porter Ranch are repaired, all while the roller coaster on Canoga remains bone-jarring.

It must be the contacts one has with the Department of Transportation, if nothing else. What will it take for Canoga to be repaired?

--Leon Sturman, Sherman Oaks

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Dear Leon:

It looks like Canoga Avenue, from Schoenborn Street to Roscoe Boulevard, won’t be repaired for another year, said Richard Evans, a superintendent for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

The street repair is included in the city’s 2000-2001 annual street-resurfacing program, he said. The Bureau of Street Services uses a federal- and state-certified Pavement Management Program to evaluate the city’s streets. The bureau tries to schedule repaving jobs before a street is completely deteriorated.

“Unfortunately, this method of selecting streets for resurfacing often gives the appearance that a perfectly good street is being resurfaced,” Evans said. “But if maintenance is deferred until the street appears in poor condition, the cost of maintenance increases 500% to 700%.”

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Dear Traffic Talk:

I recently received a ticket for parking in a “restricted parking for street cleaning” area.

However, when I parked my car, I saw no sign. I called the Police Department to find out what the requirements were for sign size and placement. I was told I could find the information in the California vehicle code book. The only reference to restricted parking signs and street sweeping was Division 11, Section 22507.6, which indicates that signs must be 17 inches by 22 inches with letters not less than 1 inch in size. Additionally, the sign must be in a conspicuous place.

Since I have never seen a restricted street sweeping sign this size, I called back the Police Department and they said I may be able to find additional information in the Los Angeles Municipal Code Book. The only information I was able to find was under Section 80.10, which states that you cannot receive a ticket if an official sign or marking is not in place and sufficiently visible to be seen by an ordinary person.

When I parked my car in the middle of a long block at 7 p.m., I saw no restricted parking signs. But the next morning, I noted one restricted parking sign at the end of each corner of this block. Can you please advise me on the requirements of sign placement and sign size? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Ira Karnofsky, Canoga Park

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Dear Ira:

Restricted parking signs are posted about every 150 feet near street lights, according to Zaki Mustafa, an engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

The 12- by 18-inch signs warn drivers of restricted or limited parking areas, he said. The size stated in the state vehicle code book is generally posted by smaller cities and along state roads.

“We try to post as many signs as possible since our streets are so long,” Mustafa said.

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