A flowing ‘river’ with hazardous twists

Deepa Bharath

Harbor Boulevard is like the Mississippi.

It traverses several cities from La Habra all the way down to the

ocean where it ends in Costa Mesa.

And much like the river, the street has a character of its own --

as diverse as strip malls and dinky restaurants in some parts to

country clubs and luxury homes in others.

The tail end of Harbor Boulevard that runs through Costa Mesa,

officials say, is one of the busiest streets in the city with tricky

intersections that can be quite dangerous if commuters are not paying

attention. About 60,000 vehicles pass through the stretch every day.

Last week, bicyclist Rafael Herrera, 76, was killed after he was

run over by an 18-wheeler that was making a right on Harbor from

Wilson Street. He was the third person killed on Harbor over the last

15 months.

In September 2001, Peter Hanahan, 43, died after being hit by a

truck as he was crossing Harbor at Merrimac Way. He was walking from

his apartment complex to the bus stop.

Two weeks ago, Antonio Lopez, a 44-year-old cook at Norms

restaurant, died in a freak three-vehicle crash. He died on the spot

after a woman who was pulling out of a driveway got hit by a sport

utility vehicle, lost control, became airborne, hit the center median

and crashed into Lopez’s van.

The three incidents happened at different times: the most recent

one occurred at about 11:20 a.m. The others happened at about 6 a.m.

and 3:15 p.m., respectively.

But that’s the way Harbor Boulevard is -- it’s busy pretty much

any time of the day, said Costa Mesa Police Traffic Lt. Karl Shuler.

“It’s been that way for years,” he said. “And it’s just getting

worse and worse.”

Construction near the San Diego Freeway doesn’t help either,

Shuler said.

“It’s not just the construction in our city, but such work in

other neighboring cities, such as Santa Ana, has an impact on our

traffic, too,” he said.

The most common cause of accidents here? Not paying attention,

Shuler said.

“We call it unsafe speed in prevailing conditions,” Shuler said.

“It’s not to be confused with speeding. It’s something like you’re

driving along and the person going in front of you, say, bends down

to pick up something that fell down and hits the brakes and you

rear-end him. That’s just an example of incidents that happen all the

time.”

People talking on hand-held cell phones while driving doesn’t help

either, he said.

The Police Department is also light on resources, Shuler said.

“For example, with the fatality [on Nov. 18], all traffic officers

were stuck there for three to four hours,” he said. “But we do try

and do our very best with the resources we have.”

Harbor is probably as overcrowded as other city thoroughfares such

as Bristol Street or Fairview Road, said Peter Naghavi, Costa Mesa’s

transportation services manager.

“Harbor is operating very satisfactorily, in my opinion,” he said.

“We have synchronized signals, traffic flows smoothly, we have four

lanes each way for a long segment of Harbor Boulevard.”

Harbor comes under the “Smart Street” category, which means it

carries abundant traffic, runs through several jurisdictions and has

between six and eight lanes.

The city has also made and continues to make improvements on

Harbor to make it safer, Naghavi said.

“We added one more northbound and southbound lane between South

Coast Drive and Adams [Street] three years ago and, shortly after

that, we rehabilitated the street between South Coast Drive and

Wilson Street,” he said.

The city has also constantly upgraded its signal systems and

created a central traffic signal control system to monitor traffic

and adjust the signals. Two intersections on Harbor will also get

red-light cameras within the next three months or so -- one at Adams

Avenue and another near the San Diego Freeway.

Harbor is also about average when it comes to the level of service

ratings for intersections, Naghavi said.

“Of course they vary from one intersection to another,” he added.

“Some may be A, others may be C or even D. But on an average, I’d say

Harbor intersections are a C+.”

Mayor Linda Dixon said the best solution to counter traffic

problems is to increase police presence in problem areas.

“When you have more police present, people seem to slow down and

observe the rules,” she said.

Dixon said, more than anything else, people need to be courteous

to one another.

“I guess we just need to slow down as a society and be more

considerate,” she said. “That is really the best solution.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.