Council Orders Plan to Ease Ventura Freeway Gridlock

Dissatisfied with efforts to reduce gridlock on the Ventura Freeway through the San Fernando Valley, the Los Angeles City Council on Friday ordered a comprehensive plan for unclogging the vital corridor.

“We have got to find a way to address this crisis,” said Councilwoman Laura Chick, who told colleagues that it often takes her 1 1/2 hours to drive from her Tarzana home to downtown Los Angeles.

“If traffic cannot move smoothly and efficiently, the cost to our economy and quality of life is staggering,” she said.

The Valley’s population is expected to grow 39% from 1990 to 2020, but there are no major freeway projects in the works to handle the additional demand and little, if any, room to expand the Ventura Freeway, the southern Valley’s main artery. Plans are in the works, however, to improve the traffic flow from the San Diego Freeway to the Ventura Freeway.

More than 550,000 motorists pass through the interchange of the Ventura and San Diego freeways each day, an increase of about 13% during the last decade. The junction, built in 1956, has become the fourth busiest in the state and receives most of the blame for congestion along the Ventura Freeway.

In November, the interchange was ranked as the seventh worst bottleneck in the nation based on American Highway Users Alliance data.

“We’ve got to deal with this particular interchange,” said Doug Failing, a California Department of Transportation division chief. “That is where the bulk of our focus is right now.”

The council action Friday, however, seeks a long-term plan for easing congestion along the Ventura from Agoura Hills to the Hollywood Freeway.

Although average freeway speeds at rush hour in Southern California are about 35 mph, the average speed on the westbound Ventura at Hayvenhurst Avenue at 5:30 p.m. on weekdays is 30 mph, and it is below 25 mph at the Hollywood Freeway. Transportation officials consider both of those speeds to be below acceptable standards.

The average on the westbound Ventura through the San Diego interchange at 5:30 p.m. is 15 mph, which Caltrans says makes that segment severely congested.