Road Trek--The Next Generation Could Be Scary Sequel

As the millennium looms, some things are inevitable.

Hollywood action movies will only get more loud, costly and stupid.

The World Wide Web’s speed and quality will plummet in inverse proportion to its popularity and the number of this-is-a-picture-of-my-cat-smiling Web sites.

The average four-cylinder car--once the companion and servant of shade-tree mechanics everywhere--soon will be impossible to fix without a trade-school degree, a diagnostic computer and gold-plated tool kit.

Oh, and gas prices are headed for the moon.

Loosely translated, We all are doomed, and the floggings will continue until morale improves.

As more Angelenos flee to the rugged, fog-swept heaven that is Ventura County (and current Ventura County dwellers snuggle close in the dark and create even more Ventura County dwellers) our roads will continue to choke on the load.

And as traffic gets thicker and slower in coming years, cities and state and county highway agencies will continue struggling to hammer out the kinks.

Unless, of course, we completely run out of oil or breathable air or those tanker-sized Big Gulp drinks that so many people seem incapable of driving without.

But enough of Street Smart’s clairvoyant good cheer. Here are some hard facts to help you bravely face your future:

Dear Street Smart:

Does Caltrans have any plans (or money) to eventually improve the merge of the Ventura Freeway and California Highway 1? At rush hour and weekends, there is usually a large backup there. In both directions, the Ventura Freeway traffic is narrowed to two lanes just before the merge.

It would seem simple enough to improve the southbound interchange. Instead of ending the right lane at the Wagon Wheel Road exit, it could be used for through traffic too, by simply remarking the lanes.

The westbound merge is more of a problem. There is an extra, unused lane that ends four-tenths of a mile before the merge, which Caltrans could extend through the merge point.

It is frustrating to be backed up on the northbound 101 when there is often little traffic merging from Highway 1.

Craig Sherbrooke

Camarillo

Dear Reader:

Frustration is Street Smart’s middle name, particularly at rush hour on that stretch of road.

But rejoice.

By the end of this decade, century and millennium, Caltrans will have solidified plans for giving that engineering rat’s nest a long-deserved $40-million make-over.

Engineers already plan to widen the bridge carrying the Ventura Freeway over the Santa Clara River. And they will somehow rectify one of the county’s most infuriating bottlenecks, with work to begin between 2000 and 2002, according to Caltrans spokeswoman Pat Reid.

But Reid said engineers have not decided what combination of lanes and lines they will use to smooth your commute.

“We are just dealing now with various alternatives, and I can’t tell you all the details now,” Reid said. “Our main traffic engineer says we realize there definitely is a bottleneck here, and it is one of Caltrans’ highest priorities to straighten it out.”

Of course, that will be happening right around the time that the city of Ventura is going full bore on the Victoria Avenue interchange . . . just down the road.

We hope your clutch, brakes and patience are in good repair.

Dear Street Smart:

Twice I have read your proclamation that future road improvements at the Victoria Avenue interchange of the Ventura Freeway will reduce congestion there. I wish to refute this statement.

Interchange “improvements” at the Ventura Freeway and Carmen Drive, as well as the Ventura Freeway and Valley Circle Boulevard have not speeded my progress through these congestion points one whit.

Both projects added one stoplight to intersections already bristling with so many lights they look like Christmas displays.

The sad result of these two expensive, botched attempts to speed traffic flow leads me to two unhappy conclusions: One, the only beneficiaries were the bridge-building contractors. And two, local officials in Camarillo and Ventura are too innocent to deal effectively with Caltrans officials.

Tom Thompson

Thousand Oaks

Dear Reader:

Far be it for Street Smart (or any other journalist) to dampen skepticism about public officials.

But in fact, it was Camarillo city officials themselves who prepared and administered the Carmen Drive interchange project, and they are not done yet.

In the next three years, they plan to widen Ventura Road and improve access to the onramps on the Carmen Drive Bridge, says Tom Fox, Camarillo traffic engineer.

Some routes will not improve until that work is done, but they are already better, he says.

“The southbound ramp coming off the freeway used to have traffic backed up down the ramp and into the freeway lanes,” he says. “Now, traffic has to wait only a few seconds before getting a green light, and . . . it’s made it a lot safer.”

As for the $15-million Valley Circle/Mulholland project completed last July, Caltrans’ Reid says it replaced an outdated, 36-year-old interchange and eased traffic congestion in a busy, rapidly developing area.

So, even if all the reds and greens and yellows have left you bedeviled, bedazzled and bewildered, the folks who count cars for a living say there are more of them passing through these intersections at once thanks to the reconstruction.

Dear Street Smart:

As a parent of children attending Westlake Elementary School at Westlake Boulevard and Potrero Road, I am concerned about the lack of a stop sign there.

Now, drivers avoid waiting to make a left turn from Potrero to northbound Westlake by making a right onto southbound Westlake and then a U-turn into the dirt to head north on Westlake. I recently witnessed a near-collision, after an impatient driver did the above and almost hit a northbound car.

Please see if you can get the proper authorities to review the situation on this corner. If we can’t get a stop sign, perhaps we can have a “NO U-TURN” sign placed on Westlake Boulevard just south of Potrero? Thanks for your help.

L.B. Kazmer

Westlake

Dear Reader:

The real hazard in that intersection is not a lack of stop signs or an excess of drivers, but the deep, dank swamp of uncertainty.

Potrero Road motorists preparing to turn left onto northbound Westlake Boulevard cannot be sure whether the cars zooming southbound will turn right onto Potrero or barrel across their path and continue on Westlake.

Caltrans engineer Albert Andraos says he met with state and county officials at the intersection June 5, counted cars, and discussed solutions.

A stop sign would only create more opportunities for an accident because traffic generally flows smoothly through the intersection, he reasoned.

“That intersection functions very well,” Andraos says. “It’s only in those two periods, when school starts in the morning and leaving in the afternoon that we have to slow people down.”

So they agreed on this solution: Caltrans will build a right-turn lane to funnel southbound Westlake Boulevard traffic into a clearly marked area to prepare for a turn onto Potrero.

That way, motorists on Potrero can clearly discern the turners from the zoomers on Westlake, and choose a safe moment to make their own turns.

Expect it to take more than a year to complete, as Caltrans first must obtain the right of way and move some utility lines to make way for the lane, he says.

Peeved? Baffled? Miffed? Or merely perplexed? Street Smart answers your most probing questions about the joys and horrors of driving around Ventura County. Write to: Street Smart, c/o Mack Reed, Los Angeles Times, 93 South Chestnut St., Ventura, 93001. Include a simple sketch if needed to help explain. E-mail us at [email protected] or call our Sound Off line, 653-7546. In any case, include your full name, address, and day and evening phone numbers. Street Smart cannot answer anonymous queries, and might edit your letter.