About a year ago, the agency in charge of our streets (excuse my ignorance, I’m not an LA City Nerd) upgraded the intersection of Oxnard and Van Nuys Blvd. with this lovely center landscaped median. Cars traveling southbound on VNB who want to turn left to go east are seen in these images.
A confusing element of traffic control has been created here.
The median strip is to the RIGHT of the SOUTHBOUND driver not on the LEFT where it should be. The center of a two-way roadway is always divided by a median so that the median is on the LEFT of the driver. It is that way in Studio City where the median has been planted along Ventura between Whitsett and Laurel Grove.It is EVEN THAT WAY further south on Van Nuys Blvd past Burbank where one turns left to go east on Chandler.
Half of the cars traveling southbound don’t understand where they should turn left onto Oxnard. Should they stay to the LEFT or RIGHT of the median? The latest sign pointing to Oxnard doesn’t indicate how to solve this conundrum.
There are many instances of illiteracy on the streets of Van Nuys, but leave it to a city agency to design a traffic control device that is illiterate of traffic laws and safety.
Here in Van Nuys 
LADOT (Department of Transportation) would be the department in charge of allowing this median to be constructed in that way. (I believe it was installed more than a year ago – wasn’t it before the Orange Line opened?)
ANyway, the LADOT East Valley District office would have been the group to sign off on this. Maintatinance, on the other hand, lies onto the Department of Public Works, Street Services Division.
Ultimately, though, the correction to the traffic flow could be expedited by Councilman Cardenas’s office – they represent the area north of Oxnard and west of Hazeltine in Van Nuys.
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