Study: toll road doesn’t affect traffic

Caltrans counters found little change in total vehicle trips between 1995 and 2005 in, out or through Laguna, but drivers may have a different perception.

The anticipated dumping of vehicles from the Inland Empire onto Laguna Canyon Road when the Eastern Toll Road opened in 1998 apparently has not materialized, according to City Manager Ken Frank.

“In fact, it is not clear that there has been any traffic increase at all over the last 10 years on Laguna Canyon Road,” he said.

The statistics were distilled from Caltrans periodic sampling of traffic under normal conditions at peak hours in peak months at eight locations in Laguna. Vehicles traveling in both direction were counted at the north and south city limits, Coast Highway north and south of Broadway, Laguna Canyon Road at Canyon Acres Drive and east and west of El Toro Road, and at Broadway and Main Beach.

“What’s interesting is that total trips have not changed, but the number of trips at peak hour has,” said Planning Commissioner Norm Grossman. “It is particularly noticeable at the north city limits where the peak hours traffic count jumped from 2,900 vehicles in 1995 to 3,900 vehicles in 2005.”

Grossman said he makes his daily commute in off hours to avoid congestion.

“There is not a lot of traffic at 6 a.m. on weekdays, and I try to come home after 7 p.m.,” Grossman said. Some studies show that 25% of the drivers on the road at peak hours are there by choice, which Grossman said is amazing.

Commuters who travel Laguna Canyon Road by choice or necessity and routinely get hung up at the intersection with El Toro Road may be surprised at some of Caltrans findings.

However, the vehicle count went up at Canyon Acres Drive from 2,550 to 3,050 over the decade. Caltrans recorded drops in peak hour counts on the road east of El Toro Road from 3,150 trips in 1995 to 1,850 trips in 2005. West of the El Toro T, traffic counts dropped from 3,600 in 1995 to 3,300 in 2005.

Drops were also documented at the southern city limits.

The counts went up at Broadway at Coast Highway from 1,700 in 1995 to 2,150 in 2005 and at Coast Highway, north of Broadway, from 3,250 to 3,900.

Variations in the counts may not represent true trends, because a minor traffic incident can significantly influence the traffic flow and the results of traffic counts during a peak hours, according to Steve May, director of Public Works and city engineer.

“There are some intersections within the downtown where vehicles tend to get stuck when traffic backs up,” Frank reported. “At our request, Caltrans has agreed to install ‘Do Not Block Intersection’ pavement markings at four locations: Coast Highway at Ocean, Coast Highway at Broadway and Broadway at two intersections with Beach. They should be done by the end of the year.”

Peak-hour values in the report typically represent the average hourly traffic over the peak four-hour period, under normal conditions, he said.

Sampling would not be done on Coast Highway on a day when Laguna Canyon Road was closed for what ever reason or vice versa.

“This is a car count, not a traffic study,” said Anne Johnson, a member of the Planning Commission, which wrestled with the downtown traffic study. “If the counts were taken at the same time of day and the same month for all three years, I suspect we could have a traffic management problem.

“If you are at the end of a line-up of cars at every intersection, you can be pretty aggravated by the time you get to the location where vehicles are being counted.

“It’s the time the drivers have to sit and wait that affects how they look at traffic.”

The complete Caltrans report and the abbreviated version is available in Public Works. For more information, call (949) 497-0351.