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.
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