TRAFFIC REROUTING IRKS NEIGHBORHOOD; FREEWAY DETOUR THROUGH STUDIO CITY ROUSES FEARS OF CONGESTION.

Byline: Douglas Haberman Daily News Staff Writer

Anxious residents are fighting a plan for rerouting traffic leaving the Hollywood Freeway after demolition of an off-ramp and freeway overpass just west of Universal City.

The existing overcrossing will be removed this fall for construction of a new off-ramp and six-lane overpass to link Ventura Boulevard with the Universal City subway station and Universal Studios' Lankershim Boulevard entrance.

Most of the freeway's northbound traffic that now uses the Ventura Boulevard exit will be directed by signs to the Vineland Avenue off-ramp, according to plans prepared by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Los Angeles Department of Transportation, officials said this week.

``This is just a nightmare in the making,'' said Jack Easton, president of the Tujunga Village Residents Association. ``We're going to have 500 cars an hour racing through our neighborhood'' looking for shortcuts to avoid traffic backups on both Vineland at Ventura Boulevard and farther west on Ventura Boulevard, he said.

The residential neighborhood was not designed to handle that much traffic, Easton said, whose association represents households between Vineland and Colfax avenues and between the Ventura Freeway and Ventura Boulevard.

Residents also say the detour plan is unfair.

``We believe in sharing the load,'' said Tony Lucente, president of the 2,000-household Studio City Residents Association, which encompasses Easton's group. It's unjust to dump all the traffic onto Vineland, which is likely to cause gridlock, he said.

The plan should distribute the traffic more evenly by encouraging some vehicles to get off at the Universal Center Drive exit and head west on Cahuenga Boulevard, Lucente said.

But James Okazaki, assistant general manager of the Department of Transportation, said signs up during the construction project will not encourage traffic to exit at Universal Center Drive.

Cahuenga has congestion problems already, he said, and Lankershim Boulevard near the Hollywood Freeway is crowded with construction projects and is rather narrow as it goes under the freeway.

``Vineland is a wider street,'' he said.

To accommodate extra traffic on Vineland, the agencies' plan calls for removal of the median on Vineland between Bluffside Drive and Ventura Boulevard to add a fifth southbound lane.

To discourage the shortcut hunters that Easton fears, Lucente's organization is proposing, among other steps, speed bumps on Aqua Vista Street between Vineland and Tujunga avenues.

Okazaki stressed that the detoured traffic won't be as bad as residents fear. He said the Ventura Boulevard off-ramp only handles about 250 cars an hour in the morning and 500 cars an hour in the evening.

``That is nothing'' in terms of Los Angeles traffic volumes, Okazaki said. But Lucente said the agencies should consider using electronic signs or even traffic police to reroute the freeway traffic differently at different hours according to the traffic situation on area surface streets.

The Studio City Residents Association has set up a private meeting Tuesday with officials from the Department of Transportation, the MTA, and the offices of county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and City Council President John Ferraro to discuss the issues.

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Photo, Map

PHOTO Homeowner leaders Tony Lucente, left, and Jack Easton are worried traffic plans will bring heavy traffic to their neighborhoods.

Evan Yee/Daily News

MAP: Hollywood Freeway (showing new access route and ramp to be closed)