TheFoothillsForum

This is why...





Taken about midnight last night. This happened a few yards along from the feed store where a previous wreck took out the traffic light and several vintage cars. Two people (one male & one female) got out and walked away from last night's accident.

This is about the 5th or 6th time this year that a car has wiped out along Sunland Blvd. and disrupted power to the local Shadow Hills area. DWP had to cut power to retrieve the vehicle.

No-one who crashed along Sunland Blvd. observed the 45 mph speed limit, so the current speed limit is not an issue.

We saw that and wondered what happened this time.

People blow through the light at La Canada Way all the time. When trying to turn onto Sunland Blvd. you have to triple check when the light turns green that everyone is actually going to stop.

I go throught that intersection at least twice a day. I do the same thing, and I'm glad I do because I can't count how many times I've seen people blast through there going around 60 mph and not even give the red light a second thought.

It was a lot worse when they first put in the light, but, it still happens enought not to trust it.

I was in that area yesterday, going down Sunland Blvd. I was going down the hill, a fire truck with lights and sirens was coming up the hill. I slowed down, put on my blinker to move to the right and stop. Someone in a Mercedes was behind me and really laid on the horn, never stopped for the fire truck, and cut off about three cars ahead of me before vanishing out of sight.

I'm not sure if it is true or not, but, I heard from someone that "they" are considering lowering the speed limit on Sunland Blvd to less than 45 mph. I'm not sure how effective that would be, since those of us going 45 probably aren't causing most of the accidents. I think that it might be more effective if the police actually take people to jail for wreckless driving if they are exceeding the limit by 20mph or more, which is the law. Instead, they write the ticked for 65 and send the person on their way pay the increased fine so they can stick around and write more tickets. It's become more of a fund raising thing than a safety thing. My humble opinion, of course.

This is happening far too often
through that whole area !!

how many more accidents are there
gonna have to be before they put more
patrols in there at all hours ?

We need people to slow down on Sunland Blvd., stop when the light turns yellow, and drive in the 2 lanes-not down the middle!! I think 45 is the right speed limit but a lot of drivers ignore it. It is scary going that way lately. Many times I'll take Wentworth/Sheldon instead. The traffic cops patrol that area sometimes. Unfortunately, it's not enough. Just drive defensively-I guess.

There is no police presence in Shadow Hills at night. But LAPD are only about two minutes away in Sun Valley or Sunland. The residents have firearms and use them.

LAPD's routine for Sunland Blvd. is to put out the speed sign trailer, that measures and shows you your speed, for about a week. This is usually deployed opposite the Presbyterian church. Then they show up and start ticketing people the following week if they have registered enough speeders to meet their quota. That's why it sometimes sits around for several weeks.

There is a proposal to slow the speed limit along Sunland Blvd. down to 35mph. The current median speed of traffic is about 50mph. I personally do not think the current speed limit is too high, and do not think the speed limit needs to be reduced. None of the accidents that have taken out the power poles happened at 50mph. According to LAPD on the scene, the above accident happened around 90mph. Reducing the speed limit to 35mph would not have prevented this accident.

I'm not impressed by adding more blinking lights (warning signs, traffic lights). They won't work. There are things that be radically changed, like removing all the traffic lights completely and building European-style concrete roundabouts, which would be completely impossible to run through at high speed. They would also calm the traffic far more effectively than the Shadow Island lights do.

SHPOA has the cover of the Nov-Dec 2011 bulletin dedicated to this, and they discussed it at the October meeting. The bulletin is available here: http://www.shpoa.us/uploads/nov-dec2011.pdf

There's also a feedback form on their web site:

http://www.shpoa.us/Speed_Enforcement.html

Thanks for posting the link for the SHPOA newsletter about the speeding and accidents on Sunland Blvd. It was very interesting.

It would be nice if they would just enforce the laws we already have, like arresting someone going +20 over the limit for wreckless driving rather than making the rest of us drive ten mph slower. Nice people like the one in the Mercedes yesterday aren't going to honor a 35 mph speed limit any more than a 45 mph speed limit.

It would be interesting to know how many 65 mph speeding tickets get handed out compared to wreckless driving arrests. I have personally witnessed the police knocking it down to 65. I totally believe that people do 90 there. Some of the light runners will not even stop when others are stopped, blow by them so fast that they are just a blur to those of us sitting on the side street with the green light. I doubt this is accidental. I think they just do it because they get away with it.

I received a speeding ticket recently down on Roscoe near Kaiser in Panorama City. I was going 45 in a 35, and Roscoe in that area is as wide and straight as Foothill Blvd is near my home in LVT, which is 50 mph. I coudln't believe how much it cost between the fine, and traffic school.

A while later, someone I know was arrested with a loaded gun and some marijuana in the car. The court ended up dropping the felony gun charge and fined him about half of what I had to pay for speeding and let him go. I was really amazed by that. Anyway.... my point being that we have a lot of laws out there that aren't enforced, or taken seriously by the courts, rather than making up more of them to ignore, it might be good to give the ones we have a chance to work.

If you ask me, the new 35mph is to catch all those who now do 45.

Plus, LAPD can't afford the officers & equipment for adequate patrolling of Sunland Blvd. So the next best thing is to hand out the occasional speeding ticket and collect the fine.

It all boils down the the same thing that's at the bottom of everything. . . MONEY