Readers Take Driver’s Seat for Suggestions
Dear Readers:
No one knows traffic problems better than those who are actually out on the road. So today we hear from readers with suggestions for improving driving conditions that range from widening roads to installing additional traffic signs.
Dear Traffic Talk:
Few people realize that the San Fernando Valley is like a giant fishbowl completely surrounded by mountains. We must rely on the freeways as our primary--sometimes only--access to and from the Valley and this puts a tremendous strain on them.
Much of the pressure could be relieved by simply eliminating roadblocks and improving our primary and secondary streets. Our freeways were designed for through traffic rather than intra-Valley traffic. For too many years we have ignored our surface streets and alternate mountain roads.
A concerted effort to bring our substandard streets to full width would greatly improve mobility. Major improvements should include Plummer and Saticoy streets, and Hayvenhurst, White Oak and Wilbur avenues.
Charles Smith, Northridge
Dear Traffic Talk:
I’ve been thinking someone should try an experiment in which drivers on all freeways drive no faster than 55 m.p.h. and don’t change lanes until they get off the freeway. It would be a one-week experiment to see how people take to it.
John Minasian, Sherman Oaks
Dear Traffic Talk:
Coming from any point west of the 405 on the Ronald Reagan Freeway, a driver will see a sign on the south side informing anyone who wants to go to Sacramento via the Golden State Freeway to take the “Second Right.†That sign is located between the 405 and the 5 going south.
The second right is the Hollywood Freeway (170) and the first is Osborne Street.
What a driver must do is stay in the far left lanes of the 118 to get off at Laurel Canyon Boulevard to take the 5 north. If a driver is in the far right lane of the 118, he’ll be taking the transition road to the 5 going in a southerly direction toward Osborne.
Perhaps that sign should be moved farther toward the 405 and changed to read “Sacramento--Left Lanes.†By placing that sign farther west, it would give the traveler more time to make the lane change to go to Sacramento.
Bernard Baima
Burbank
Dear Traffic Talk:
I am writing concerning the traffic hazard at the intersection of Chandler Boulevard and Whitsett Avenue in Valley Village.
Chandler consists of two one-way streets with an island in the middle where the train tracks run. The hazard comes from many drivers waiting in the island who decide to run the red light when no cars are approaching. I have seen this over and over. I have also seen two accidents at this intersection in the last six months.
An awareness of this problem and some signs posted would be very beneficial.
Michael Benghiat, North Hollywood
Traffic Talk appears Fridays in The Times Valley Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic in the Valley. Please write to Traffic Talk, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, Calif. 91311. Include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted. To record your comments, call (818) 772-3303. Send fax letters to (818) 772-3385.
