RADAR EYED FOR ANOTHER FORMER COUNTRY ROAD PICO CANYON SPEEDING PLAGUES STEVENSON RANCH.

Byline: PATRICIA FARRELL AIDEM

Staff Writer

STEVENSON RANCH -- At the desolate top of scenic Pico Canyon Road, traffic woes are the last thing on the lone motorist's mind.

But as natural scenery gives way to a row of trees spaced with precision along the concrete sidewalk passing new tracts of homes, a plan for radar speed patrols makes more sense.

Once again, city life meets countryside in the Santa Clarita Valley, where once-rustic highways become racetracks for suburbanites heading out.

Residents of Stevenson Ranch, in the tracts that have changed the face of the historic canyon, are pleading for help from the California Highway Patrol to slow traffic on the canyon road that has been widened to serve a growing area, passing two parks and an elementary school along the way.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will vote on a recommendation from the Public Works Department to allow the CHP to use radar to snag speeders. The board will meet at 9:30 a.m. in the county Hall of Administration in downtown Los Angeles.

The speed limit on Pico Canyon is 50 mph from Whispering Oaks Road to The Old Road and 40 mph from there west to Chiquella Lane, where there are fast-food restaurants, inns and gas stations at the busy freeway stop.

Approval would allow the county Department of Public Works to work with the CHP to implement radar speed enforcement. Radar patrols already are allowed on neighboring streets in the area.

Using radar to track and ticket speeders is expected to significantly reduce the accident potential, according to a public works report on the plan.

Any expenses would be assumed by the CHP.

County government and the CHP have been working together on radar enforcement for 20 years.

pat.aidem(at)dailynews.com

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