Congested Roads Test Travelers and Authorities

Congested roadways throughout the county frayed travelers’ nerves Friday and kept law enforcement agencies jumping as the long holiday weekend got underway.

“This is the tough part,” Steve Bringelson said after spending half an hour in traffic for a five-mile trip to a Thousand Oaks mall to pick up a gift.

While authorities said they expect heavy traffic to continue today, the weather forecast is less bleak, with mostly sunny skies predicted for the weekend and Christmas Day. Daytime highs were expected to be in the mid-60s to about 70, with lows dipping into the 30s to mid-40s.

Dense fog forecast for the coastal areas this morning is expected to burn off before noon, meteorologists said.

A steady stream of minor and non-injury collisions kept fire and police personnel busy Friday as a crush of cars filled both surface streets and freeways with last-minute shoppers and travelers heading to points beyond the county.

With Christmas falling on a Monday, law enforcement agencies across the county had expected people to leave work early and get a jump on the weekend.

“We knew people would want to make as long a weekend as possible,” California Highway Patrol Lt. Bob DelMese said.

When the freeways weren’t moving at a snail’s pace Friday, pockets of backed-up traffic brought unsuspecting drivers to a screeching halt.

“That happens when there’s a large volume of cars exiting offramps near major shopping centers,” DelMese said.

The backups caused Maria Capina of Oxnard to arrive at her job at Air Touch Cellular in Ventura more than an hour late after driving there from the east county.

“Traffic was so backed up from Thousand Oaks that I decided to take a back way to get into work here in Ventura,” said Capina, 23, after exiting the Ventura Freeway at Telephone Road for the mall where the cell phone shop is located.

At Main Street and Telephone Road, drivers heading to malls talked on their cell phones, trying to get business done during the involuntary commuting delay.

The CHP will maximize enforcement with more than 60 officers on patrol through early Tuesday. DelMese said because the agency had been advised that the state faces a strong possibility of a Stage 3 electrical shortage through Christmas, officers were on high alert for any impacts at major intersections.

“If drivers come into an intersection where the lights are out, drivers need to remember that it’s then like a four-way stop sign,” DelMese said.

“But whatever happens, I’m sure it’s going to be a busy weekend for us.”

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Correspondents Nancy Forrest-Yosnow and Josh Karp contributed to this report.