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Traffic meters and HOV lanes come to Murrieta onramp
By: BRIAN ECKHOUSE - Staff Writer | ∞
Traffic signals at the bottom of the Los Alamos on-ramp to northbound I-215 have not been activated yet, but will be used to meter the flow of traffic onto the freeway.
DAVID CARLSON Staff Photographer
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MURRIETA -- It's a Southwest County first ---- and for a change, Temecula is not the one taking the bow.
Murrieta is the first community in Southwest County to have both high-occupancy vehicle lanes and signals controlling access on freeway onramps. The signals, which were recently installed on the onramps to Interstate 215 from Los Alamos Road, are expected to be operational in less than a month, but they may not be used immediately, a city official said.
The decision to add the new features was made by the California Department of Transportation, local officials say, and they were put in as part of a project to widen the bridge from two to six lanes across the interstate and expand the onramps.
Both the signals ---- known as "meters" ---- and the high-occupancy vehicle lanes are designed to make it easier for drivers to merge onto high-speed freeway lanes without interrupting the flow of traffic.
"We're finally getting our roads and our infrastructure up to date," said Warnie Enochs, a Murrieta City Councilman. "We're sending the trend for the valley. We got state-of-the-art stuff."
The meters allow either one or two vehicles in a lane to move onto the freeway at a time, while cars and SUVs in other lanes wait their turns. Meters are typically in operation during peak traffic hours only, and have been common for decades in San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles counties.
The HOV lane will be especially useful for drivers with at least one passenger when freeway-bound traffic is backed up. But once on the freeway, vehicles with two or more people inside won't be rewarded for car-pooling; there are no HOV lanes on area freeways.
Murrieta may be the first to get the ramp meters, but that's not necessarily a good thing for the city, said Temecula Councilman Ron Roberts, who is a member of the Riverside County Transportation Commission.
In Temecula at Winchester Road, a long stream of vehicles is often found funneling into a congested one-lane ramp onto northbound Interstate 15 ---- particularly at peak traffic hours. The same is true for both ramps at Rancho California Road.
But Roberts believes I-15 ramp meters would actually worsen traffic on Winchester Road.
"What (meters) are doing is regulating the traffic going on the freeway to have more open spaces between the cars coming on to the freeway," he said.
Fewer cars being able to get on the freeway would mean even more cars backing up on Winchester.
Meters, however, are inevitable at Winchester Road, said Greg Butler, Temecula's deputy director of public works.
Caltrans has included meters in the design of an overhauled Winchester interchange, he said. That project would coincide with the construction of the French Valley Parkway, which is a proposed new interchange at the Temecula-Murrieta line that is still in the design and review phase.
Winchester may be congested, but traffic typically is heavier on Newport Road in Menifee, as hundreds of drivers each morning await access to the single-lane ramps onto I-215.
Meters are probably headed there, and Scott Road as well, said county Transportation Director George Johnson.
"I fully expect we'll do that as we develop those interchange projects," he said.
Although not all area officials are excited about the new ramp meters, Murrieta residents Gracie Soto and Robin Carter are relieved state and city officials finally have begun rectifying the traffic nightmare ---- particularly with the HOV lane on the I-215 onramp at Los Alamos Road.
Murrieta resident Frank Wood is a heavy user of HOV lanes ---- when he's on a road or freeway where they exist.
"Everything takes a long time when it involves the state and cities," said Wood, 79. "If I was worried about how long it takes, I wouldn't be here, Just the fact that they're here before I'm in a wheelchair is a good thing."
Contact staff writer Brian Eckhouse at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2626, or beckhouse@californian.com.
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George wrote on Jul 20, 2007 1:02 AM:Onramp meters mean one thing: insufficient capacity. Add more lanes to the freeway and the ramps, and you won't need the meters.
Gary in Murrieta wrote on Jul 20, 2007 4:48 AM:Family members do not constitite carpooling. What a joke.
Gary wrote on Jul 20, 2007 6:37 AM:Where we really need the onramp meters is on the 15 north bound from Temecula all through Murrieta. It does not take a rocket scientist to see where the traffic stops on the freeway in conjunction with oncoming traffic at Rancho California, Winchester, and Los Alamos every afternoon. I just sort of figured they do not do this as the gridlock in the city will be even worse then it is now, and they want to dump the gridlock on the freeway. How is that for city planning?
Ingrid wrote on Jul 20, 2007 6:40 AM:If one eliminated all of the kids and family members from the carpool equation, how many people left will be legitimately carpooling? My guess is that it is less then 1%. Just meter all of the cars and get back to reality. What a waste of resources the carpool and HOV lanes are.
wildomar mom wrote on Jul 20, 2007 7:00 AM:What was the purpose of using "while cars and SUVs in other lanes" as opposed to "vehicles" in defining how meters work? (Sixth paragraph) Was this just another California liberal jab at those that drive SUVs, and suggesting that they normally only have one occupant?
What a blown job: wrote on Jul 20, 2007 9:28 AM: Please take note that "state-of-the-art" is obsolete before it comes off the drawing board. To really get ahead of the game the design you use must be on the "cutting edge." It seems to me I can not travel from my home to any point in San Diego County without encountering and being hampered by construction of state-of-the-art highways. Someone, or some group, must have been dropping the ball for a long time and decided to update our highways all at the same time in order to get our illegals to their jobs on the new highway construction on time- - ?
hmmm wrote on Jul 20, 2007 9:33 AM:The state of the art stuff? Wow, you guys are way behind the times. Traffic is so bad in that area you needed those a long time ago.
Tim wrote on Jul 20, 2007 9:41 AM:"We're finally getting our roads and our infrastructure up to date," said Warnie Enochs, a Murrieta City Councilman. "We're sending the trend for the valley. We got state-of-the-art stuff." Huh...last time I checked the I-215 was still a outdated (and congested) 4 lane highway. Are your new bridges going to be able to allow additional lanes on I-215 to run underneath them, or are they going to be tore down and rebuilt???
What a joke! wrote on Jul 20, 2007 10:41 AM:Until they improve the infrastructure of our growing valley, all these band-aids will not ease the congestion we experience on a daily basis. Planning needs to be done before the growth, not as an after thought.
Roy wrote on Jul 20, 2007 10:41 AM:Metered onramps are a crutch and a false solution. They are just a thorn in the side of commuters. Traffic gets backed up on surface streets and and Caltrans takes false credit that they are doing something about gridlock. Caltrans is a taxpayer waste and should be dismantled and our freeways should be handled by a different entity. Their fake solutions are evident all over California as gridlock increases and never decreases.
Gary wrote on Jul 20, 2007 1:14 PM:As a 10 year carpooler, and a five year van pooler, the traffic has gotten so bad on the 215 North of the 15/215 split, that after I make my drop off my riders at Sams' club, I just use the city streets, to continue my travel north. That is too bad as so many other people also do this because the 215 being a two lane freeway, is just not up to par. Now the quality of life in the residencial areas is being made to suffer.
Syl wrote on Jul 20, 2007 1:40 PM:RE: The meters allow either one or two vehicles in a lane to move onto the freeway at a time, while cars and SUVs in other lanes wait their turns. >>>> In the accompanying photo 7 out of the 11 vehicles shown are SUV's. The remaining 5 vehicles are trucks. Just maybe the SUV's are now the norm. Is the writer of this story inferring that the traffic problems are caused by SUV's? I GUESS WHAT WE REALLY NEED IS A METER AND SPECIAL LANE JUST FOR SUV's SO AS TO PENALIZE THEM, and then our traffic problems would be solved.
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