Commuter Lanes Plan Approved for 55, 405 Freeways

A plan to dedicate new lanes on the Costa Mesa and San Diego freeways to buses, van pools and car pools won approval Monday from the Orange County Transportation Commission, launching Orange County’s first experiment with commuter lanes.

“This is a historic first for Orange County and may be the beginning of things to come for our other freeways,” said commission Chairman James Roosevelt.

“Once again, we’ll be able to drive 55 on the 55 (freeway),” added Commissioner Ralph B. Clark. “I think this is probably one of the most important, and certainly the most positive, transportation decisions we’ve made in a long time.”

The decision to implement the commuter lanes on a 90-day-trial basis affects two new lanes scheduled to open in middle to late November, which are being striped into the median of the Costa Mesa Freeway. It also affects two new lanes that will be paved in the median of the 405--the San Diego Freeway--by 1988. The lanes, one in each direction, will be restricted to vehicles with two or more occupants.

The decision, applauded Monday by representatives of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce and several major county employers, is designed to increase the freeways’ “people-carrying capacity” without the expense of major freeway widening or new construction, said Ron Cole of the Transportation Commission staff.

“The car-pool lane concept is a way of managing our existing resources and squeezing more use out of our existing freeways when we don’t have enough money to build more,” Cole said. “The object of car-pool lanes is not moving cars, but people. The point is, we’re trying to get more people to use that freeway.”

Demand for freeway space is so great that a new, general travel lane would quickly become congested, transportation planners say. The commuter lane concept encourages drivers to share their cars by offering them a significant time savings, while offering drivers in surrounding lanes a slightly smaller time savings.

Critics of the plan, including state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) and Tustin Mayor Frank Reinke, call the commuter lane proposal an experiment in “social engineering” and complain that taxpayers at large are having to pay for new freeway lanes that will only be available to a few.

But Orange Mayor James Beam, chairman of an advisory committee that recommended the commuter lane plan, said that commuters on the Artesia Freeway, where a similar commuter lane test is in effect, have responded favorably. “We have no reason to believe that the people of Orange County won’t accept it just the way the folks on the 91 (freeway) did,” Beam said.

Recent surveys have shown that most Orange County residents and most regular commuters on the Costa Mesa Freeway like the idea of commuter lanes, Beam added.

Capt. Charles Lind of the California Highway Patrol also discounted safety concerns that have been raised over the commuter lanes and said there have been few problems during the Artesia Freeway experiment.

A Caltrans report showed “no perceptible change” in accident rates during the first 16 weeks of commuter lane operation there. A total of 11 accidents on the freeway have been directly related to the commuter lane, ranging from vehicles illegally entering or exiting the lane (next to much slower traffic) to cars striking the median barrier.

Though the new lanes will replace the emergency shoulders in the median, the CHP has found that it is much safer to use the right side of the freeway as an emergency shoulder anyway, transportation officials say.