Keep That Fast Boat in the Slow Lane, Owners Advised

Dear Street Smart: I am a trailer-boat owner who still thinks that the far right lane on the freeway is the lane for us. The exception is when we move over one lane to the left in order to pass a slower vehicle.

Why do I see vehicles pulling boats, travel trailers and utility trailers in the fast lanes, closest to the center divider? And why don’t they ever seem to get a ticket?

Isn’t it still the law that vehicles towing another vehicle must be in the far right lanes?

Steve Rosenberg, Agoura

Dear Reader:

The law hasn’t changed. But perhaps fewer people are obeying it.

Bob Kovacik of Trailer Boats magazine, based in Carson, says the violations you’ve described occur quite often. Yet he adds: “I rarely see anybody getting pulled over.”

Kovacik, whose title is--believe it or not--”senior towing editor,” says the United States has 15 million boat owners, and 95% of them haul their vessels to water via trailer. California is among the top three states in boat ownership, he says.

Yet if you’ve ever seen a speeding boat trailer veering wildly from side to side on the blacktop just ahead, you know why the state wants them in the slow lane.

Safety-minded motorists who are pulling trailers “tend to be going slower, and their maneuvers tend to be a bit more calculated because the trailers make their vehicles longer,” says Kovacik. “You’ve doubled or more than doubled the size of the vehicle you’re used to driving every day.”

For the record, California Highway Patrol Officer Pablo Torres says any vehicle pulling a trailer on a California freeway must be in the far right lane. You can move one lane to the left to pass, but then you must return to the far right lane.

There are a couple of exceptions, Torres says. If the freeway has at least five lanes, you can pull a trailer in the two lanes closest to the right shoulder. And if the road splits, or if you need to use an exit on the left, you can leave the far right lane to move into the proper lane.

Another reminder: A car towing a trailer cannot legally exceed 55 m.p.h., even on those remote stretches where other cars are allowed to go 65 m.p.h.

Dear Street Smart:

I’ve been driving on Roscoe Boulevard between Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Woodman Avenue in the East Valley for the past three years.

This street is in very bad condition. The asphalt is cracked everywhere, and there are large holes in the street. I would like to know if the city has any plans to fix this major street in the near future.

Lulu Fuentes, Sun Valley

Dear Reader:

This stretch of Roscoe has indeed taken a beating. You can blame it on heavy traffic, rainy weather and normal wear and tear.

Earlier this year, city street officials were prepared to resurface Roscoe between Laurel Canyon and Ventura Canyon Avenue. But then Mother Nature stepped in, ending the state’s long drought with lots of pounding rain.

When the clouds cleared, the city had to use the Roscoe repaving money for a more urgent project--repairing storm damage on Orovista Avenue in Sunland, says Randall Disko of the city’s Bureau of Engineering.

But that doesn’t mean the city has forgotten about Roscoe. The five-month resurfacing project, costing about $804,000, is now set to begin next July, Disko says. There will be some inconvenience while the work is under way, but the contractor must keep at least one eastbound and two westbound lanes open at all times.

When the work is done, you should enjoy a much smoother commute.

Dear Street Smart:

I always believed that interstate highways were given odd numbers if they ran north-south and even numbers if they ran east-west.

If this is true, then why is the Harbor Freeway, which runs north-south, designated the 110? And why is the new Century Freeway, which runs east-west, designated the 105?

Sally Angel, Valencia

Dear Reader:

One Federal Highway Administration official we consulted put it this way: “There are general rules. But as in language, there are always exceptions to the rules.”

Your basic assumption is correct. Interstates that run north-south across the country usually have odd numbers. The numbers begin here on the West Coast with I-5, the Golden State Freeway, and get larger as they approach I-95 on the East Coast.

The east-west interstates usually have even numbers. They include the I-10, the Santa Monica Freeway, which runs through the southern states. The numbers get higher as you move toward I-90, which crosses the northern states.

But the formula gets more complicated in freeway-filled urban areas such as Los Angeles.

Shorter sections of interstate highway that snake away from the main routes usually get a three-number designation. If a highway breaks away, then loops back to reconnect with the main interstate, it usually starts with an even number and ends with the number of the highway where it originated.

For example, I-405, the San Diego Freeway, breaks away from the I-5 in Orange County, then reconnects with it in Sylmar.

If the urban highway is a “spur,” meaning it breaks away from a main interstate and never reconnects, the three-digit route designation begins with an odd number. Therefore, the Harbor Freeway was dubbed Interstate 110 because it connects at one end to the Santa Monica Freeway, which is Interstate 10.

The Century Freeway became Interstate 105 because it was envisioned as a spur highway, leading away from I-5. The road was shortened because of community opposition, so it does not now tie in to I-5.

This should clear up some of the confusion.

Now, have mercy on your Street Smart writer, and please don’t ask why I-605, the San Gabriel River Freeway, never loops back to I-5 or why some freeways change their names but not their numbers. Sorting out today’s highways and route number formulas has left him far too dizzy.

Dear Street Smart:

We would be interested to know when Backer Road, near the community of Castaic, will be opened.

It starts at The Old Road, beside the Golden State Freeway, but it is blocked off between there and Hasley Canyon Road.

The street appears to be completed, but it is not open to the public. It is open, however, from Hasley Canyon to the new U. S. Postal Service building.

We’re new to the area, and we’re curious about what is going on.

James Degnan, Castaic

Dear Reader:

The road you’re referring to runs west of the Golden State Freeway, just north of Magic Mountain. Until recently, Backer Road ended alongside the Live Oak housing tract, a short distance from Hasley Canyon Road.

The Newhall Land & Farming Co., the area’s major property owner, has been extending Backer Road south, so that it can serve a business park, the Valencia Commerce Center, just south of Hasley Canyon Road.

The first occupant of this business park is the Postal Service’s new regional mail processing center, expected to open next spring. The main access will be from California 126 to the south.

Backer Road will provide a secondary route in and out of the business park from the north, says Marlee Lauffer, a spokeswoman for Newhall Land.

And finally, to answer your main question, the extended Backer Road should be open to traffic early next year.