Traffic Management

Once the dust settled from the U.S. Commerce Department's refusal last week to back a proposed toll road extension through south Orange County, one thing became clear: Traffic planners have a problem. Environmentalists who had railed against the proposed Foothill South route because of its potential effect on wetlands and San Onofre State Beach are clamoring for Interstate 5 to be widened instead. But no funding exists for that, and it would require bulldozing homes and businesses.

The federal government declined Thursday to breathe new life into a plan to carve a toll road through southern Orange County, apparently ending a contentious, years-long campaign by transportation officials who predict that without it, the current freeway system is destined for breakdown.

By dinner time on most nights in downtown Culver City, a steady flow of traffic fills the city's three public parking garages and scores of metered spaces, spilling out into residential streets. It is evidence of the community's cultural and culinary renaissance, which includes galleries, shops, wine bars and upscale restaurants. But there's a price to be paid for this commercial revival: more congestion, cranky locals and frustrated consumers who can't quite understand what's happened to the once-quiet town.

Illustrating how politically difficult it is to tackle traffic in Los Angeles County, the Board of Supervisors failed Tuesday to back a proposed half-cent sales tax increase that could raise up to $40 billion for roads and mass transit. The supervisors' surprising inability to muster a simple majority to place the proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot does not kill the tax effort, but makes it more complicated and perhaps more costly.

An effort to ease daytime traffic at Southern California's major ports is working better than anyone imagined, shifting 40% of freight movements away from peak business hours, the program's manager will announce today. But some say the push to move cargo at night and on Saturdays doesn't go far enough to ease congestion and other ill effects on neighboring communities.

With gasoline prices skyrocketing, key members of the Los Angeles business community are beginning to throw their political weight behind a sales tax increase to pay for more road and mass transit projects, including the beginning of the subway to the sea. David Fleming, chairman of the Los Angeles County Business Federation, told me Tuesday that as a Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member he intends to vote to move the sales tax forward toward the November ballot.

Wouldn't it be great if traffic signals were half as smart as traffic cops? Some new technology is promising to improve the intelligence of traffic signals at major intersections. It is just one of several major advances in which cameras and computers are transforming law enforcement, highway safety and eventually driving itself. Aldis Corp., an Oak Ridge, Tenn.

After months of controversy, the fates of Olympic and Pico boulevards edged toward a resolution Wednesday, as a judge heard arguments over a city plan to turn them into quasi-one way streets. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John Torribio said that he expects to issue a ruling Friday. Two groups have sued Los Angeles, saying more environmental study is needed.

After years of planning and funding delays, Ventura County transportation officials Thursday formally marked the opening of traffic lanes that expand the frequently congested California 23 from four to six lanes. Although the lanes have been in use for a month, the unveiling symbolically marked the final stretch of the $65-million highway improvement project for the 7 1/2 -mile leg that extends from Hillcrest Drive in Thousand Oaks north to the bridge near New Los Angeles Avenue in Moorpark.

Tim Wolfe lives in West Covina, in the heart of the San Gabriel Valley. As an electronics salesman, his territory is the distant San Fernando Valley, miles to the west. By his own count, Wolfe spends about half of his workday in his car. The other half is spent with customers.