COSTA MESA : Newport Blvd. Signals Irk Drivers, Council

Resident Sid Soffer thinks there’s some kind of conspiracy going on along Newport Boulevard, where the signal lights always seem red in front of Triangle Square.

“The city just wants us to shop,” he says. “They want us to wait at the lights, then take a look at all the nice things in the pretty windows, then go inside.”

The only solution he can offer--and it’s a sarcastic one--is this: “If red was green and green was red--I mean, if you could drive on red and stop on green--then we wouldn’t have a problem out there.”

Nonetheless, the problem exists, and even the City Council concedes there is too long of a wait at times, particularly during morning and evening rush hours.

But the city is not responsible for traffic light synchronization along Newport Boulevard; that responsibility belongs to the state Department of Transportation.

“Some lights we get to play with, others we don’t,” Councilman Peter F. Buffa said. “And, unfortunately, the lights along Newport Boulevard are out of our control.”

Anthony Liudzius, an associate electrical engineer for Caltrans, admits there are problems along the stretch of boulevard between 17th Street and the beginning of the Costa Mesa Freeway.

“The volume has increased five times since the freeway was extended five years ago,” he said. “And the coordination of the traffic signals breaks down when it gets overloaded.”

Councilwoman Sandra L. Genis is equally irritated with the slow traffic along the boulevard.

“It gets frustrating when you have to stop at 17th Street, then Harbor, then Broadway,” she said. “What’s worse is when you see a green light up ahead, but there aren’t any cars there. Then when your platoon of cars gets there, it turns red.”

The ultimate answer to a nonstop ride through the area is extending the Costa Mesa Freeway to Coast Highway, she said.

In the meantime, Genis said the city should work with Caltrans to resolve the problem.

But Soffer said he’s not holding his breath, either.