OCEANSIDE -- The daily flow of traffic through Camp Pendleton's front gate is starting to frustrate residents of Oceanside's Capistrano Park neighborhood.

Tucked in between the Marine base and the San Luis Rey River, the 1,200 people who live in the neighborhood have only one way in and out: San Rafael Drive. The road is only a few hundred yards from Pendleton's main entrance, and thousands of Marines and private contractors who work on base use it every day.

In the morning -- usually between 6:30 and 7:30 -- traffic backs up on a long offramp that leads from northbound Interstate 5 to the main gate of Camp Pendleton. A residential street, Capistrano Drive, connects to part of the offramp, which becomes Vandegrift Boulevard as it approaches Camp Pendleton's main gate.

Rather than wait in line, many vehicles turn onto Capistrano Drive and then turn again onto San Rafael, speeding along that street until they can cut back to Vandegrift Boulevard to get into line.

Heather Hutchinson, who said her family has lived in the neighborhood since 2000, said, "They literally go careening around the corner. It's dangerous."

Hutchinson said the long line of cars backed up to enter Pendleton often blocks the San Rafael intersection, preventing her from reaching the freeway to get to work.

Sometimes, she said, base-bound traffic turns right from San Rafael's left-turn-only lane, holding up neighborhood traffic trying to head south on I-5.

"It's not every day that it's bad, but it's pretty often," Hutchinson said. "I'm wondering if there could be a red-light camera to at least give people tickets when they block the intersection."

Paul Pace, a city transportation planner, said Oceanside has long been aware of the conflict between base and Capistrano Park traffic.

He said the city recently repainted asphalt striping and added a warning sign asking base traffic not to block the intersection. He said a red-light camera would not work to ticket those who are disobeying the rules of the road.

"Red-light cameras, they're not really set up to do that," Pace said. "They are set up to catch people who are running through a red light, but not cars that are just stopped in the intersection."

Pace said the city is considering prohibiting left turns onto San Rafael in the morning. However, he said, that probably wouldn't fix the problem, because it would rely on drivers following the rules.

He said he believes the long-term solution to the traffic back-up is to reconfigure the Marine base's main entrance. Pendleton planners recently gave the city a schematic of a new entrance design, which appears to add two lanes for incoming traffic and separates large trucks from smaller passenger vehicles.

Camp Pendleton officials called by the North County Times did not respond to questions about how the new entrance would affect backed-up traffic for Capistrano Park, or when the entrance might be rebuilt.

"From what I've seen, it looks like it would give a lot more room to hold cars that are waiting to get through the main inspection point," Pace said, referring to the line of military police who check identification of each vehicle that enters the base.

Hutchinson said she does not care what the solution is, so long as something is done to make it easier for Capistrano Park's 1,200 residents to exit their neighborhood.

"Everyone's been really nice, but no one really has a good solution right now, or at least not one they've shared with us," Hutchinson said.

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.