Costa Mesa Freeways

For the most part, traffic did its typical commute crawl Tuesday morning--but it crawled a bit faster than usual on at least five stretches of the Southern California freeway system. Caltrans officials monitoring 10 freeway checkpoints on Tuesday--designated "Keep California Moving Day"--said traffic moved as much as 7 m.p.h. faster in five locations, compared to measurements from a similar survey conducted a month earlier. The agency checkpoints were set up from 6 to 10 a.m.

Heads turned Tuesday morning on the 405 Freeway in Orange County as motorists saw a man skateboarding along the shoulder during rush hour after his black Nissan coupe ran out of gas. Motorists began calling the California Highway Patrol about 8:15 a.m. with reports that a man was skateboarding on the southbound shoulder near Red Hill Avenue in Costa Mesa, said CHP Officer Denise Quesada. The officer who responded found the driver standing with his thumb out and holding an empty gas can. The officer called the Freeway Service Patrol.

Re "Bill Would Aid Toll Lane Purchase," Aug. 13: The diagram accompanying the article provides an excellent description of this complex and costly expansion of the interchange between the San Diego and Costa Mesa freeways. The changes are needed to help reduce congestion caused by cars weaving in from carpool lanes. It should be pointed out that all this construction would not have been necessary if there were no carpool lanes. Carpool lanes were supposed to alleviate congestion by encouraging ridesharing.

For more than three decades, Costa Mesa has sought help from the county and state to solve its No. 1 traffic dilemma: The uncompleted 55 Freeway that dumps 100,000 vehicles daily onto 19th Street. Finally, those years of lobbying may have paid off. On Monday, the Orange County Transportation Authority Board is poised to approve a $275,000 study to examine alternatives -- including tunneling beneath Newport Boulevard -- to help relieve congestion.

The Orange County proposition to fund added lanes to the existing freeways, new freeways into undeveloped areas, a light-rail system and expansion of the bus system was rejected a few years ago, not because people did not want to pay for more lanes on the existing freeways, but because they were also asked to support the other projects. Your article of Nov. 21 substantiates this preference by those surveyed. Orange County Transit District officials continue to try to re-engineer our minds toward their perceived solutions, while we wish they could get on with the job of providing the free-flowing freeways that we are paying them to provide.

Re "Trustees Seek Probe of Lopez Recall Effort," Nov. 13: Nativo Lopez is sweating his last days on the Santa Ana school board. The defeat of Nadia Davis, who frequently voted with the incompetent and perceived corrupt majority, has John Palacio, Sal Tinajero and Lopez searching for a legislative intervention for the recall set Feb. 4. The district attorney found no evidence of fraud. Neither did the Orange County registrar of voters, who certified more than 9,000 signatures. State lawmakers and Atty.

A portion of Orange County's first transitway, a 60-foot-high car-pool lane connecting the Santa Ana and Costa Mesa freeways, opened to commuters Wednesday in Tustin. The link will channel as many as 23,000 car-pools, buses and motorcycles a day between the two freeways and has already helped alleviate traffic congestion at the nation's ninth-busiest intersection, officials said. "This is a major transportation milestone" for Orange County, said Brent Felker, district director for Caltrans.

It is no surprise that California's transportation system is failing to meet our needs. Like our life's blood, state highways transport our food, fuel and wastes. If our blood system fails, the body dies. California's economic lifeline may also be fatally stricken unless our state's transit system is resuscitated quickly. A cure for this potentially deadly illness is at hand. An increase in the gas tax proposed by the governor, legislators, consumer groups and businesses will be on the ballot in the June, 1990, election.

City officials got a first look at a proposal to transform Edinger Avenue into a county "super-street" on Monday. The county proposal, called the Moulton Parkway Super-Street project, would create a 24 1/2-mile arterial highway that would begin at Main Street in Santa Ana and extend to Del Prado Avenue in Dana Point. The portion that would travel through Tustin is currently known as Edinger Avenue.

A Riverside woman died and two others were injured when their Toyota 4-Runner flipped several times Monday on the Costa Mesa Freeway, California Highway Patrol officials said. The Toyota's driver, Pauline Luong, 28, was traveling north on the freeway near Walnut Avenue about 1:25 p.m. Monday, CHP Officer Mark Reeves said. She swerved to avoid a tire tread in the carpool lane and lost control.

A motorist was shot in the neck early Sunday on the Costa Mesa Freeway in Tustin, the latest in what law enforcement officials say is a rash of seemingly random car-to-car gunfire in Southern California. The 32-year-old Tustin man drove three miles to a hospital in Orange after the 1:45 a.m. shooting and was expected to live, said Tustin Police Sgt. Charlie Celano.

The search continued Tuesday for a motorist who fled the scene after a boat he was towing on the Costa Mesa Freeway broke loose and killed a motorcyclist. "We had some pivotal leads indicating he may have gone to San Diego," said Sgt. Chico Ramos of the California Highway Patrol, "so we sent some investigators down there but were unable to find him."

A motorcyclist was killed Monday when a boat being towed on the Costa Mesa Freeway broke loose and struck him, officials said. Authorities are seeking the truck driver, who fled the scene. Mark Stephen Burris, 34, of Huntington Beach was pronounced dead at the scene about 8:40 a.m. in Tustin just south of the Santa Ana Freeway. The boat first hit a car driven by a 31-year-old Irvine woman, then struck the motorcyclist. The woman was not injured.

A driver racing his new Porsche was killed late Tuesday when he lost control, struck a guardrail, soared off the Costa Mesa Freeway, flew through a stand of trees and plunged 23 feet before landing nearby on the San Diego Freeway, authorities said. Investigators said the victim, Michael Hanson, 23, of San Diego, was hurled into the northbound lanes of the freeway, where his body was hit by several cars and decapitated.

About 250 Tustin residents camped out at a local high school early Friday after an overturned propane truck closed the Costa Mesa Freeway for eight hours and forced the evacuation of nearby houses, officials said. No one was injured in the accident, but a family was jolted when a double set of truck tires crashed through the sliding patio door of their apartment. "I was so scared," said Vicky Alvarez, 19, a physical therapist assistant. "We thought it was a burglar with a bat."

Re "Trustees Seek Probe of Lopez Recall Effort," Nov. 13: Nativo Lopez is sweating his last days on the Santa Ana school board. The defeat of Nadia Davis, who frequently voted with the incompetent and perceived corrupt majority, has John Palacio, Sal Tinajero and Lopez searching for a legislative intervention for the recall set Feb. 4. The district attorney found no evidence of fraud. Neither did the Orange County registrar of voters, who certified more than 9,000 signatures. State lawmakers and Atty.

I read with interest your May 5 article concerning the claimed 77% accident rate increase on the Costa Mesa Freeway. I have been skeptical of the Orange County Transportation Commission's claim that even though the number of cars on the freeway has recently risen by more than 40%, the overall number of accidents is down. I would hope that the commission would be forthright in releasing full traffic accident statistics so that it can be determined just how hazardous the Costa Mesa Freeway is and how the new car-pool lanes have affected the accident rate.

An unidentified man was killed early Friday when he tried to run across traffic lanes of the Costa Mesa Freeway, according to the California Highway Patrol. About 12:45 a.m., as the man ran across the southbound lanes of the freeway, he was struck by a 1989 Chevrolet van and killed instantly, the CHP said. The driver, a 48-year-old Costa Mesa man, told authorities he saw the pedestrian at the last minute but could not avoid him. The driver was not cited.

Construction defects may delay the opening -- and possibly require the rebuilding -- of a $12-million carpool lane connector at the busy interchange of the San Diego and Costa Mesa freeways. Orange County transportation officials said Tuesday that they are investigating structural defects recently discovered in portions of the two-way, half-mile ramp between the freeways.

Re "Bill Would Aid Toll Lane Purchase," Aug. 13: The diagram accompanying the article provides an excellent description of this complex and costly expansion of the interchange between the San Diego and Costa Mesa freeways. The changes are needed to help reduce congestion caused by cars weaving in from carpool lanes. It should be pointed out that all this construction would not have been necessary if there were no carpool lanes. Carpool lanes were supposed to alleviate congestion by encouraging ridesharing.