Listening to the news before I began my commute from Menifee to Orange County, I heard them announce that the price for oil is going to go up again. -Article-

Big surprise. But what makes this different than any other day? Well this is going to be a record high . Here we go. Not only is this affecting the daily commuters and the road-trippers, this is now going to affect airline travelers as well. American Airlines announced a plan to charge $15 to check the first bag for your flight. Geesh! What’s next? Good thing we live close to Lake Elsinore, us with boats don’t have to drive that far to have some fun.

Hybrid vehicles are looking more and more attractive as time goes on, despite the sticker price.

Labels: Traffic

Beginning January 1, 2008, it's going to cost you more to use the toll lanes on the 91 freeway.

Here's the new toll schedule (top going east, and bottom going west)...



Note that it'll cost you as high as $10.00 to travel east on the toll lane, during the 3:00pm hour.

Labels: Traffic

Bryan Kuhl is one of Menifee's newest residents, and beginning with the New Year, he'll be commuting to Newport Beach each morning to get to work.

So as part of his way to give back to his newly adopted community, he launched a blog to document his morning travels...

http://wagoncreekproject.blogspot.com/

Here's what Brian thinks about commuting 3+ hours each day in his car...

What makes everyone cringe at the fact of commuting such a distance? These are the days of comfortable cars with climate controls, CD players, MP3 player hook ups, etc. Why would it be so bad to sit and drive for lengthy periods of time? Truck drivers do it. Field technicians do it. Why can't I?

I used to do it, commuting from Menifee to Santa Ana, by the 405 & 55 freeways. If I took the 91 freeway into OC, I would have to get up at 4:00am, and be out the door by 4:30am, and then hit the 15/91 interchange by 4:55am. By that time, the interchange was already a parking lot. But I could get into work by 6:00am.

And of course, that allowed me to leave work at 3:00pm. And YOU HAVE to leave OC by that time, if you wanted to get back to Menifee before the big rush hit.

You can also take Ortega Highway, which I did many times. The Ortega route is further in miles, but a little shorter in time because the traffic moved more quickly. The problem is that if an accident occurred along the Ortega, you'd be stuck there for an hour or more. And I got stuck there a couple times.

But right now, and for another two more years, construction on Ortega is causing lines of cars, several miles long during peak commuting hours.

I moved out to Menifee from Orange County with the intention of quitting my job there, and starting my own business here, which I have done. But it still took me two years later to quit that job. I recommend Brian look seriously for jobs around here, or, start his own business. Otherwise, the commute will turn you into an angry man.

Just look at me.

Labels: Traffic, Websites

Yesterday, around 2:10pm while driving down McCall Blvd, going downhill approaching Menifee Rd, I hit a traffic jam. Parents were lined up in their cars, trying to pick up their kids from Boulder Ridge Middle School.

It was rather dangerous, because as you get up the hill, going past Menifee Valley Medical Center, you and the rest of the cars are driving around 50-55mph. And as soon as you get over the hill, you hit upon the traffic jam, and you have to hit your brakes hard to avoid hitting stopped cars.

The same thing is true at each school. It doesn't matter if its an elementary school, middle school, or even high school. In fact, today, the Press Enterprise reports of the traffic jams at Paloma Valley High, due to parents trying to pick up and drop off their kids.

I guess it boggles my mind why parents need to drive their teenagers to school.

I attended Santa Ana Valley High during 1980-1984, which had the reputation that time as being the roughest high school in all of Orange County. And I lived in one of the roughest neighborhoods of Santa Ana.

And I walked to school everyday, about 3 miles each way. In fact, I also walked to middle school (or intermediate school as they call it there), even further, about 5 miles each way, going through gang-infested neighborhoods, like F-Troop and Dogtown, and East Side. Yes, there's actually a gang called "F-Troop"!

The fact is that back then most of us kids did this, and we braved worse situations than kids today.

Neighborhoods today, especially here in Menifee are 10 times more safe than the neighborhoods I had to walk through. And yet, parents are clogging up the roads trying to pick up their kids. These are the same parents that walked to school themselves.

I've heard it said that there are more sex offenders now than there was when I was a kid. WRONG! They were just as many sex offenders back then. I remember in elementary school being told time and time again, not to talk to strangers. If anything has changed, we've become more tough against sex offenders. Like I said, neighborhoods in Menifee are 10 times more safe then when I was a kid.

And yeah, even in elementary school, I walked to school.

Labels: Traffic

Last Monday, the Western Riverside Council of Governments, a board consisting of our County Supervisors and the council members of local cities, all listened to a presentation from Brian Taylor, director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies.

Taylor basically said that any freeway expansion plans for Riverside County won't ease congestion, but actually invite more of it. He went on to say that toll roads are the best solution towards keeping traffic moving.

You can read about it in an article published by The Californian...
http://www.nctimes.com/..../11_16_168_6_07.txt

After the presentation, various members of the board offered their quotes to the reporter, which basically rejected the notion that toll roads were the best solution. 3rd District Supervisor Jeff Stone probably said it best...

And County Supervisor Jeff Stone said it is misleading to suggest that tolls solve the congestion problem, because those who can't afford the charge still wind up sitting in traffic.

"I think that causes a lot of rebellion for people who are stuck on a fixed income and are trying to get home," Stone said.

I used to commute from Menifee to the John Wayne Airport area to work each day, between 2001-2003, before finally quitting to do this website business of mine. Some days I'd take the 91 freeway, and other days I'd take Ortega Highway. Both seem to get me to work about the same time, except the Ortega Highway always kept moving at a faster pace, even though technically, it was a longer commute in miles.

But I also used to ride down the toll lanes of the 91 freeway. I had a transponder from the Toll Lanes operator. In those days, it cost me $5.00 to travel down the 91 toll lanes. I believe it costs even more today. Without it, you're simply stuck in traffic, and being stuck makes you angry. So essentially, the toll road is an anger management tool more than anything else.

My solution to the traffic congestion is to ride motorcycles or scooters. These days, scooters are as fast and powerful as many of the motorcycles out there. The smaller size of motorcycles and scooters means that they take up less room on the roadways and traffic moves faster. You can also expect to get between 40-50 MPG with most motorcycles, and 50-70 MPG on most scooters. You're saving a lot of money on gasoline, and you're producing fewer emissions.

But as for toll roads, I don't welcome them. Even though I used them in my commutes, I would have preferred to open up all lanes to everyone. Just because toll lanes move faster, doesn't mean the "free lanes" move faster, they seem to move slower and slower all the time. And like Stone said, people who cannot afford the tolls get more angry.

We need to widen lanes, and widen them big time. I'd like to see the I-215 widen to at least 4 lanes on each side, instead of the proposed three. I realize that will encourage more people to move here, but we already know more people are going to move here anyways.

Labels: Traffic

Is six lanes on the I-215 enough?

That's what CalTrans is planning for the I-215 between Nuevo Rd in Perris all the way south to the I-15 interchange to six lanes. Three lanes each way.

Is that enough?

Considering the fact that the California State Department of Finance predicts Riverside County to become the second largest county in the state by mid-century, and the fact that much of the population increase is expected to reside from Perris to Murrieta, it seems like we need more lanes than that. How about eight lanes or ten lanes?

My guess is that CalTrans may be able to widen the I-215 to six lanes by utilizing the center median and shoulders. On the other hand, eight lanes may require rebuilding all of the overpasses.

But here's the thing. Pretty much all of the overpasses along this stretch of the I-215 needs to be widened anyways. 4th Street, McCall, Newport, Scott, and Clinton Keith, are all insufficient given today's traffic problems, and not even taking into account the future Countryside Marketplace on Newport and future Wal-Mart on Scott. If they have to widen these overpasses anyways, they may as well design them to stretch over eight lanes of the I-215.

But I'm sure it always comes down to money.

But then again, take a look at the 91 freeway going through Corona. That thing has 10 lanes and is still not enough.

Construction to widen the I-215 won't begin until 2010, and may not complete until 2012. The Newport Rd overpass is supposedly being widen even further sometime in 2011.

Read more about this subject at The Californian, here...
http://www.nctimes.com/..../8_22_427_11_07.txt

Labels: 215-Freeway, Traffic

The Californian published an article yesterday about "lane splitting"...

http://www.nctimes.com/..../01_44_766_3_07.txt

"Lane splitting" is what someone does when he or she rides their motorcycle in between slow-moving cars on a freeway. The article says that this practice goes way back to the days when all motorcycles had air-cooled engines, and needed to keep moving to prevent overheating.

I suppose there's some truth to that, though today, many air-cooled motorcycles don't overheat when stopped on freeways.

The reason why California remains as the only state in the union to allow lane-splitting is because of safety.

Several years ago, lawmakers in Sacramento drafted a bill to make lane-splitting illegal, thinking it would save more lives. However, the California Highway Patrol lobbied against the bill, on grounds that it cause more bikers to die.

That is, if motorcyclists were forced to wait behind slow moving or stopped vehicles, they run the risk of getting rear-ended by other vehicles. This happens all too often on freeways, where drivers fail to pay attention to stopped traffic up ahead. Rear ending a motorcycle is almost always fatal for the biker.

That's why the CHP wants bikers to split lanes, to protect them from drivers not paying attention.

The CHP used accident fatality data compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to show that a frequent cause of deaths in motorcycle accidents in other states are car drivers rear-ending motorcycles.

That's why the California State Legislature changed its mind and allowed lane-splitting to remain legal.

I put about 30,000 miles each year on my two motorcycles. I've witnessed many "rear-end" accidents between two cars on the freeway. When a car gets rear-ended, the driver usually survives. But when it happens to a motorcycle, the biker almost always dies. If lane-splitting were legal in all 50 states, a lot more people would be alive today.

Labels: Motorcycles, Traffic

A Menifee 24/7 reader named Mike submitted the following comment to us today regarding traffic at the intersection of Newport and Antelope roads...

here is my first and last blog...i really get annoyed at the "not so smart people of menifee" ..every morning antelope and newport road get backed up and you have to sit at 3 stoplights to get through and people block the intersection....this is because everyone is a car length away from the car in front of them..so all we have to do is scoot up as close as you can(and yeah leave a little room just in case they roll back) but come on people..the morning would be so much smoother if you would scoot your car up.

from the guy who motions with his hand to scoot up in the morning getting onto the 215 Northbound.

Basically he's saying that people leave too much empty space between their car and the car in front of them. This causes the traffic back up too far down the road.

Labels: Traffic

Three Comments!

The Traffic along Newport Road is awful in the AM. I am concerned about what will happen with Centex at The Lakes is completed and the Newport Road Extension to Winchester. Does anyone know if there are plans to widen Newport, between Menifee Road and Antelope? It would appear that the island down the middle would need to go?

Second- What about plans for a fwy bridge at Holland or Garbani, in addition to an onramp? This would alleviate a lot of the traffic.

Third- I have seen the light poles on the floor at Scott and Antelope for the last week, it would be nice to see them up and working sometime soon!

FYI: I have heard a few plans from Murrieta leaders. I understand that Clinton Keith construction will begin next year and the plan is take it all the way to Winchester. Also, there is supposed to be new bridges, about 6 lanes built at Scott Road/215 and Clinton Keith/215 and also at Baxter Rd, where on onramp/offramp will be. This is in preparation for the new hospital off Antelope in 2008 (See previous listing, there was an article in the Californian last month).

Labels: Antelope-Road, Centex-at-the-Lakes, Clinton-Keith-Road, Newport-Road, Scott-Road, Traffic

A Menifee 24/7 reader wrote to me about his concerns over students putting themselves in harm's way when walking to their parents' cars after school. I'm reprinting his letter here:

Hi Steve, Just a frustrated parent as well as a concerned parent regarding Oak Meadow Elementary School.

Basically, if you have a first, second, third etc. grader going to that school, are you aware that once school is out, the kids are on their own, free to leave the property and wander off wherever they want to go? According to the principal Mrs. Carpenter (formerly Ms. Chirico), "she cannot force students to stay on campus and use the pick up lane". They have a drop off/pick up lane that apparantly extends to Scott Rd. There is nobody telling these young children what they can and cannot do and apparently the principal cannot enforce anything pertaining to the children regarding this matter.

I wonder how many other parents are frustrated with the way this school is being run?

The writer also provided a copy of the response from The Principal, which I won't reprint since I don't have her permission to do so. But she effectively says there is nothing she can do. She spoke to the Murrieta Police Dept., and they can't seem to do anything.

The issue of children J-walking to get to their parent's cars is a legitimate concern. I'm not familiar with this issue, because I haven't witnessed the situation. Though, I've witnessed the madness going on at Ridgemoor Elementary when school gets out, and I agree it's a legitimate concern.

If schools should take on the added responsibility of ensuring the safety of children, before and after school, then it's going to cost money. The district will need to hire additional traffic monitors to keep kids from J-walking, as well as building facilities where kids can wait before and after school. Are we prepared to pony up some more property taxes?

Seems to me this is an issue of parents not taking responsibility for their own children. What's the solution here? Busting bad parents, or raising property taxes?

Labels: Oak-Meadows-Elementary, Traffic