TRAFFIC TALK : Signal Has a Mind of Its Own

Dear Traffic Talk:

The signals at the intersection of Balboa Boulevard and Balboa Place, just south of the Golden State Freeway, have timing that defies logic.

Two days ago, I sat in the left-turn lane on northbound Balboa Boulevard, trying to make a left turn onto Balboa Place, for three signal changes before the left-turn arrow turned green. I was on a heavyweight motorcycle on the first signal sensor, and there was a car on the second.

During this time, there was only one car traveling south on Balboa Boulevard. I would suggest that a sensor be put on the southbound lanes that would trip the northbound left-turn arrow to red when a car is coming but would allow the arrow to remain green at all other times.

If there is a sensor in the southbound lanes already, then the timing should be corrected. There is very little southbound traffic.

--Bob Parks

Northridge

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Dear Bob:

During peak traffic hours in the morning and afternoon, the signals rest in green for northbound and left-turn traffic on Balboa Boulevard, according to Brian Gallagher, a transportation engineer with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

“Northbound traffic gets as much green time as possible,” Gallagher said.

The northbound signal will turn yellow if a southbound car approaches, he said. Otherwise, there is no preference for either direction of traffic; the signals remain green for the direction that last had an oncoming vehicle, he said.

Motorcycles usually have no trouble activating the sensors, but a maintenance crew will check them and increase their sensitivity, if needed, he said.

Dear Traffic Talk:

Are motorcycles not required to be fitted with mufflers? Tens of thousands of these machines operate on our roads with straight exhaust pipes. The noise is deafening when my driver’s window is down. At night, I see flame and sparks from these open pipes, often along weedy rural roads.

Are these powerful vehicles smog-exempt? I have never seen a motorcycle, despite the enormity of their engines, fitted with a catalytic converter. Why not?

--J.P. Cunningham

Agoura

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Dear J.P.:

Operating a motorcycle without a muffler is illegal, but motorcycles are not required to have smog-reduction devices or catalytic converters, said Evan Nossoff, a spokesman for the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

Mufflers primarily reduce sound and sparks, and operating motorcycles without them is a vehicle code violation.

“Some like to make a lot of noise, and some highway patrolmen like to write them up,” he said.

But motorcycles, unlike other vehicles, are exempt from smog checks and catalytic converters because their engines are smaller, he said.

“They’re not putting out that much junk into the atmosphere,” Nossoff said.

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Traffic Talk appears Fridays in The Times Valley Edition. Readers may submit comments and questions about traffic in the Valley to Traffic Talk, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Include your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted. Fax letters to (818) 772-3385. E-mail questions to valley.news@latimes.com.