Testing the Limits of Road Signs--and Readers’ Patience

Don’t scold that child.

“Are we there yet?” might be the fourth plaintive whine you’ve shrugged off in the last five minutes of your eight-hour drive toward a serene weekend somewhere green.

But that nagging question might also be the key to nirvana. Where is “there,” anyway?

Pardon us while Street Smart goes all existential on you.

Where are you right now? Sure, you might be in a house just off Ventura Avenue, Ventura, California, USA, Earth, the Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy--the Universe.

But you could also say you’re in a chair. In a funk. Up the creek.

Or in getting-ready-for-work-and-wondering-why-Street-Smart-

is-wasting-my-time-with-this-philosophical-claptrap mode.

Stay with us here.

You are also in Southern California. But as we residents are so fond of saying, “There’s no there there.”

So where are you?

Theoreticians may agree with one of Street Smart’s favorite philosophies: wherever you go, there you are.

But realists take heart: the truth can be found in this week’s column. Mighty Caltrans has devised a set of numbers, names and measurable points in space that will give you, scientifically, The Answer.

Dear Street Smart:

You may have answered this before. If so, I missed it.

How do they measure the distance between cities and put it on road signs?

Is it from each city limit sign to the next, or between city halls, or the “center” of a city?

When the Los Angeles city limit sign is reached on the freeway, we still drive another 20 miles to reach the downtown area.

So, from what point to what point do they measure?

Elizabeth Graham

Simi Valley

Dear Reader:

Well, this brings up another favorite Street Smart mystery: who are they?

They are going to build cities on the moon some day.

They always make it impossible to rush during “rush hour.”

They say you can’t take it with you. Of course, this begs the next question: Who, really, are you? But we digress. Caltrans’ Pat Reid, not one to trifle with your patience the way Street Smart does, offers a clear and precise answer:

“The distance between large cities is generally calculated by measuring the distance between the central point of each city,” she responds.

“In large cities, this point is usually city hall,” according to Reid. “In small cities, the main post office is frequently used. The most central location of a community may not be the ‘dead center,’ geographically.”

So, in truth, when you are inside the Los Angeles city limit sign, you’re not really there yet, are you?

Dear Street Smart:

While waiting and waiting and waiting at the red light at the intersection of Oxnard Boulevard and Vineyard Avenue, I was wondering if anyone else has noticed that the green light for eastbound Vineyard is only 15 seconds long.

I have timed it many times, since I am usually sitting there doing nothing.

I have also noticed that the green light for westbound Vineyard and both directions of Oxnard Boulevard is approximately 90 seconds long. At peak times, the traffic really backs up for eastbound Vineyard.

When all is said and done, 15 seconds is not very long for such a busy intersection, considering you have to wait for the westbound traffic that ran the red light to finish clearing the intersection--and you get a whopping 10 seconds to make the light yourself.

Add that to the usual train that also clogs up traffic there, and you have a real mess.

Maybe you could talk to the powers that be, and get a longer light for eastbound Vineyard. Many motorists would appreciate it, myself included.

Steve Joneson

Oxnard

Dear Reader:

Ah, time.

We’ll leave the existential pondering to Stephen Hawking on this one, and proceed directly to the agency responsible.

Caltrans dispatched traffic engineers to look at the light recently, and they agree the light needs to be longer, according to Reid.

“After observing this intersection operating with 15 seconds of green signal time, traffic engineers recently increased the ‘green time’ for eastbound Vineyard from 15 to 18 seconds,” Reid reports. “Field observations have indicated that 18 seconds of ‘green time’ is generally sufficient for this move at this intersection during peak times.”

Dear Street Smart:

Traffic traveling at 55 mph northbound on Victoria Avenue can be dangerously held up by cars turning right at Doris Avenue because there is no right-turn lane.

Cars often have to jam on their brakes or make a hazardous change of lane because a car has slowed so much to turn right on Doris. Is there a good reason that there is no right-turn lane at this intersection?

Alden L. McMurtry

Oxnard

Dear Reader:

One man’s road hazard is another man’s thrill.

Witness the Indy 500. Or this country’s sick obsession with sport-utility vehicles (which most motorists wisely drive only on nice, flat freeways, because if they suddenly discovered the mystic secrets of 4-wheel-drive, can you imagine the hailstorm of Bravadas, Sidekicks and Navigators we’d see plummeting off the roadsides in Ojai? But we digress. Again. Sorry.)

Ventura County Assistant Traffic Engineer Richard Herrera says he and his colleagues took a gander at Victoria and Doris.

“After conducting an investigation of this intersection, we found that striping a right-turn lane is not warranted at this time,” he writes.

After counting cars at morning and afternoon peak hours and checking the accident database, the engineers found that right-turning vehicles there cause neither interference nor an increase in wrecks. In fact, there have been NO reported accidents, according to county stats.

“Most vehicles that turned right moved into the shoulder lane, slowed down and then made their turn,” he writes. “We will monitor this location periodically. If a separate right-turn lane becomes warranted in the future, we will schedule the work.”

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 Mack.R[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.