HILLSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD GIVEN VOTE TO STEM TIDE OF CUT-THROUGH TRAFFIC.

Byline: Holly Edwards Staff Writer

Every weekday, thousands of commuters take a shortcut through Margery Grossman's Encino neighborhood, cutting down narrow streets over to Mulholland Drive, en route to Sepulveda Boulevard and the San Diego Freeway.

It's a problem that Grossman and her neighbors have endured for years. Now there could be a way to ease traffic gridlock through the community.

About 5,000 hillside residents will be asked to vote by mail-in ballot on a $250,000 plan designed to slow down motorists entering the Encino neighborhood.

``It's kind of unusual for our agency to try to slow down traffic instead of move it along faster, but this is a real quality-of-life issue for these neighborhoods,'' said Yadi Hashemi, a city traffic engineer. ``It's also a safety issue because emergency vehicles have difficulty getting through.''

The plan by the city Department of Transportation calls for extending green lights on Ventura Boulevard leading to the Ventura and San Diego freeways, and shortening left-turn signals leading to hillside neighborhoods during morning rush hour.

The final public workshop on the proposal - which also includes additional turn signals, stop signs and timing changes to existing signals - will be held tonight from 7 to 9 at Lanai Elementary, 4241 Lanai Road.

If the measures are approved, city officials hope to put them in place next summer when a car-pool lane opens on the southbound San Diego Freeway.

City studies showed about 70 percent of the vehicles that travel through the area are Valley commuters bound for Los Angeles.

Commuters typically take Hayvenhurst Avenue to Calneva Drive to access Mulholland Drive, which is a direct route to Sepulveda Boulevard and the San Diego Freeway. More than 20,000 vehicles per day travel the narrow, two-way streets.

Grossman said she has witnessed motorists risk head-on collisions to gain a few seconds. Her husband allows extra time to get to work each day because of the difficulty backing out of the driveway.

``You just sit there and grit your teeth until someone is kind enough to let you out,'' she said. ``You don't know how difficult, how sad and how oppressive this situation is until you live it.''

Many commuters believe the hillside routes are quicker than the freeway, but studies show it's slightly faster to take the freeway, Hashemi said.

The proposal has met with some resistance from residents north of Ventura Boulevard who say they have traffic problems of their own that aren't being addressed, officials said. However, Hashemi said the city is developing a separate plan to deal with those problems.

The hillside traffic calming measures would also make it more difficult for residents to access their neighborhoods in the morning. However, Hashemi pointed out that most residents leave their homes in the morning and return in the evening.

In order for the plan to be implemented, he said, at least 40 percent of the residents who receive the ballots must return them, and at least two- thirds of those must be in favor of the plan.

The measures are expected to reduce traffic on hillside streets by only 10 percent to 15 percent, but many residents said that would be an improvement.

``We know it's not going to be a magic cure,'' Grossman said. ``But we've been in trouble many long years, and any improvement should prove to be beneficial.''

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Photo:

Morning rush-hour commuters pack Hayvenhurst Avenue south of Ventura Boulevard.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

Map:

CHANGES TO MORNING COMMUTE