RAMP CLOSURE IRKS MOTORISTS.Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer Dirty stares, finger-pointing and hardened opinions consumed a community meeting Thursday as residents squared off over a proposal to temporarily close the northbound Ventura Freeway's Haskell Avenue off-ramp. About 50 people who rely on the off-ramp or dread the traffic it brings to their neighborhood attended the meeting at the Encino Community Center. Caltrans and city transportation officials were there to explain how the closure may relieve congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load. congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity. at the troubled intersection of the Ventura and San Diego freeways. The meeting was quickly overshadowed by emotion as residents drew sides on the issue. ``Closing the off-ramp is going to be a disaster,'' said Al Baslow. ``Knowing how politics works, once they close that ramp they'll never open it again - never in a million years.'' Baslow's comment, which came early in the 90-minute meeting, drew cheers of agreement from roughly half the audience. The other half voiced strong support for the proposed six-month test closure, which would allow transportation engineers to study whether it indeed relieves congestion. The off-ramp is located where merging traffic from the northbound and southbound San Diego Freeway meets cars on the Ventura Freeway The Ventura Freeway is a freeway in southern California running from Ventura to Pasadena. It is the principal east-west route through Ventura County and in the southern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County. , creating a confusion of vehicles entering and exiting the freeway. ``It has a very, very high accident rate because it comes up so quickly after the interchange and there's a weaving problem,'' said Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski Cindy Miscikowski represented the 11th District on the Los Angeles City Council for two full terms from 1997 through 2005. Previously, she was an aide to Councilman Marvin Braude and the Executive Director of the Skitball Cultural Center in its beginning stages. , who organized Thursday's meeting. Linda Urette, who lives across the street from where the off-ramp meets Haskell Avenue, said closure is desperately needed to stem the steady stream of cars that spill into the quiet residential neighborhood. ``People get off this off-ramp and most of them are lost. They're looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a gas station or a phone. I'm asked for directions constantly,'' said Urette, adding that in her opinion, ``It's also easy ingress An entrance. Contrast with "egress," which means exit. See ingress traffic. See also Ingres 2006. and egress See ingress. for burglars.'' |
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