Less Red Light Time in Store for Katella Commuters

There may be some relief on the horizon to the teeth gnashing, steering wheel-gripping experience of slogging down Katella Avenue across Los Alamitos Boulevard during rush-hour traffic.

The Los Alamitos City Council voted Monday to join the Orange County Transportation Authority in an ambitious project to streamline the lights on Katella Avenue, one of the busiest corridors in the county. The project tackles 58 traffic signals along a 15-mile stretch of Katella Avenue from the San Gabriel Freeway (605) to Santiago Canyon Road at the eastern border of Orange. While the project is expected to offer relief to commuters, it also raises some concerns for city leaders. Namely, city officials and residents want to take advantage of the county funded improvement while maintaining authority over the signals within Los Alamitos.

“My biggest concern,” said resident Dean Grose, “is that the city may lose some impact and feedback.”

Grose said he supports the idea of improved timing and synchronization of signals along Katella Avenue. But the city should be able to ask for additional improvements such as timers that allow drivers to make left-hand turns when there is no opposing traffic, he added. As it currently stands, the drivers sometimes needlessly wait up to 120 seconds for a chance to turn left off Katella Avenue, he said.

“You wait and you wait and you wait,” said Grose.

“I also have experienced many times going to turn left from Katella Avenue when there is no traffic coming down the street and sitting there and waiting,” said City Councilwoman Marilynn Poe.

Mayor Kenneth Stephens also expressed concerns about the city’s ability to control the length of time allotted to pedestrians in crosswalks if lights in Los Alamitos have to be synchronized with signals in other cities.

“My concerns is (for) the students trying to get to Los Alamitos Elementary and the students trying to get to high school,” said Stephens.

There are no guarantees, but OCTA officials are generally responsive to the concerns of the community, said City Engineer David Hunt.

Roughly 63,300 drivers or almost six times the city’s population, traverse segments of Katella daily in Los Alamitos .

Katella Avenue was originally made a “smart street” with synchronized signals in 2002, but there is still significant room for improvement and technological upgrades. The new project, which will begin in July, passes through Los Alamitos, Cypress,  Garden Grove, Stanton, Anaheim and Orange. Engineers will conduct studies and timing analyses to develop optimal signal synchronization. According to a city staff by Hunt, “The implementation of the new optimized timing and infrastructure improvements will provide signal synchronization timing for prevailing traffic patterns, maximize the number of intersections traversed on a green indication vs. those stopped by a red indication, reduce stops, decrease travel times, reduce overall delay and reduce the emissions of green house gasses.”

In other words, Los Alamitos and Rossmoor residents would be able to get from their homes to the 605 faster.

While the city is at it, suggested Poe, why not allow U-turns on Katella, too?