New Carpool Lanes on 405 a Pleasant Shift
Morning commuters on the San Diego Freeway got a welcome surprise Tuesday: new carpool lanes.
The 5.1-mile expansion is expected to ease traffic congestion on the 405 around Los Angeles International Airport -- and is part of the continuing effort to move people and cars more rapidly along the nation’s busiest freeway.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. May 25, 2006 For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday May 25, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 41 words Type of Material: Correction
Carpool lane: An article in Wednesday’s California section about new carpool lanes on the 405 Freeway misidentified a section of the 101 Freeway where it meets the 405 Freeway as the Hollywood Freeway. At that point, it is the Ventura Freeway.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa estimated that carpoolers will save five minutes using the lanes that run in both directions between the 105 Freeway and California 90.
“Smart carpool commuters will be able to take advantage of this carpool lane and get to their destinations quicker and more efficiently,” the mayor said.
Villaraigosa said he will continue to support carpool lanes that “will help relieve traffic congestion and, more importantly, promote ride-sharing.”
The $40.3-million project is the latest phase of an effort to build a seamless high-occupancy vehicle lane on the 405 all the way from the Westside to the San Fernando Valley.
Caltrans officials said the southbound lane will cover the entire distance by early 2008; the northbound between the Santa Monica Freeway and the Hollywood Freeway is in the early planning stage.
To make room for the 11-foot-wide high-occupancy vehicle lanes, the shoulders of the freeway were narrowed and the lanes were re-striped. About half of Los Angeles County’s 915-mile freeway system has carpool lanes, Caltrans officials said, and an additional 200 miles of such lanes are under construction, being designed or in the planning stage.
More than 725,000 commuters use the county’s carpool lanes daily, according to the department’s estimates.
The new carpool lanes opened a few hours earlier than expected, without fanfare, when Caltrans workers -- following agency policy to open lanes as soon as they are ready -- removed barriers for the morning rush hour.
They didn’t wait for the afternoon news conference, where officials, including Villaraigosa, praised the effort to improve air quality and reduce congestion on the freeway and surrounding streets.
Caltrans officials said they had considered having a parade of hybrid vehicles inaugurate the lanes.
But, said Darryl Ryan, the mayor’s spokesman: “We didn’t want our commuters waiting.”
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