No Smooth Path Found to Carefree Commuting

Despite the obstacles, officials throughout the South Bay are attempting--some steadily, some fitfully--to come to grips with the traffic jams that are coming within the next two years.

The overall prediction is for stop-and-crawl traffic for hours each day on the South Bay’s freeways, rush-hour grid lock at key intersections and overloaded residential streets.

Those trying to do something about traffic face a formidable series of hurdles:

- The hectic pace of development that is causing the upsurge is projected to continue as municipal governments--with Proposition 13’s property tax cuts in mind--welcome tax-producing development, and industry, shoppers, homeowners and apartment dwellers flock to the convenient location, relatively clean air and suburban environment of the South Bay.

- Raising the gasoline tax to pay for transportation improvements remains politically impractical, according to state transportation analysts.

- California ranks 40th among all states in combined state and federal gasoline taxes and three years ago was ranked 49th in per-capita spending on highways.

- What state money is available for roads is buying less despite increases in travel.

Increased fuel efficiency, inflation in construction costs, the expense of mitigating environmental impacts and relocation costs are eroding purchasing power, according to Caltrans. The state transportation agency says this caused a shortfall of $160 million for new projects programmed through 1990, and another account, including funding for safety and rehabilitation projects, faces a shortfall of $292 million.

- The bulk of the state money for roads in Los Angeles County goes to match federal dollars to pay for the Century Freeway and a transit way on the Harbor Freeway. Together, the two projects will absorb four of five state transportation dollars spent in the county through 1995. Officials have had to put projects not eligible for federal funding on the back burner for fear of losing federal money that went unmatched.

- The Century Freeway is likely to be the last new freeway in Los Angeles County. Only an extension, the northern end of the Long Beach Freeway into Pasadena, is planned after the Century is built.

- In some cities, municipal interests and rivalries fracture attempts at regional cooperation.

- Efforts to put more people in fewer vehicles--vans, buses, trams, trains--are predicted to have minimal effect, at least in the short run. These endeavors are absorbing most of the additional local transportation funding generated by the half-cent Proposition A sales tax.

- The average number of people per car is going down in Los Angeles County, not up.

- Governmental agencies with responsibility for transportation have little power over land use.

Still, some efforts may bear fruit.

They range from megaprojects like the $1.6-billion Century Freeway to more humble street widenings, traffic-light synchronization and left-turn lanes.

From Airport to Norwalk

The Century Freeway, which will stretch 17 miles from Los Angeles International Airport to Norwalk, is expected to relieve east-west congestion somewhat.

But a study performed by the Southern California Assn. of Governments (SCAG) predicts that it will be congested from the day it opens in 1993. Cars will be crawling at less than 20 m.p.h. more than an hour a day in rush-hour traffic, according to the study.

Also designed to relieve congestion will be a $500-million bus and car-pool lane on the Harbor Freeway that is intended to make life easier for commuters to and from downtown Los Angeles when it opens, also in 1993.

The newest idea is the program championed by Los Angeles City Council President Pat Russell. It attempts to tie together the horns of the development-traffic dilemma by using the local government power of land-use determination to bolster transportation funding.

Something New

This is a reversal for Southern California where, historically, it has been transportation, starting with the rail system and continuing with the freeway system, that has spurred development

Russell’s ordinance, passed Sept. 20, affects the area near Los Angeles International Airport called the Coastal Transportation Corridor.

The corridor, which covers part of an area scrutinized by SCAG in a 1984 report, is the site of intense commercial, industrial and residential development.

According to the ordinance, new approaches must be devised to finance transportation improvements “or future development restricted . . . (to) prevent area-wide congestion.”

Explained Russell’s press secretary John Hartmire: “The philosophy is that developers want to develop, well and good. But they cannot make traffic any worse. For every trip a new development generates, they have to pay a fee. That fee goes into a pool called the transportation trust fund. That fund will be used for region-wide transportation projects, such as park-and-ride lots, widening roads, new transit facilities, shuttle buses, construction of new roads, widening roads, intersection reconstruction.

First Such Plan in Nation

“This is the first (plan) of its kind in the nation linking land use to its impact on transportation.”

Based on the size and type of new construction, traffic tables incorporated into the ordinance calculate that a new building generates a certain number of afternoon peak-hour trips each weekday. Developers will be charged $2,010 for every afternoon peak-hour weekday trip that their building generates.

The figure of $2,010 per trip was produced by complex econometric formulas estimating the dollar value of the burden that each additional trip places on the area’s transportation system. Developers who build in certain types of traffic improvements can gain a “credit” for some of the fees. The fees are expected to generate $9.5 million annually, according to the city’s Department of Transportation.

Russell aide David Grannis said analysis showed that the fees would add about $5 a square foot to the cost of office space and about $2 a square foot for industrial buildings. “In a sense,” said Grannis, “we have made it more economic to develop where it is not congested.” In the area covered by the ordinance, he said, “we were told the market was so strong . . . that it would support” the additional costs. Developers made “a few squawks but nothing too serious,” Hartmire added.

Russell eventually wants to extend the ordinance to all of Los Angeles, which would include some other sections of the South Bay.

Idea Catching On

The general idea--requiring developers to do more to ease the traffic they cause--is catching on in other South Bay cities, particularly in the area around Los Angeles International Airport analyzed in the 1984 SCAG report.

El Segundo passed an ordinance Nov. 19 that requires developers of major projects to provide special parking and loading areas for car and van poolers with the goal of reducing the number of trips generated by 20%. An incentive for developers is a reduction in the number of required parking spaces.

In Manhattan Beach, a transportation-development ordinance is being considered. Bijan Yarjani, the SCAG analyst who was project manager of the airport area study, said that discussions with Hawthorne are under way and that the City Council in Culver City supports the goals of transportation system management. Gardena, where high-density residential development is intense, charges builders $1,000 per unit for building public improvements of all types.

Still, existing development and land-use patterns cast long shadows that are not easily altered.

A case in point is Hermosa Beach, where Pacific Coast Highway runs through the commercial center of town carrying thousands of commuters from the El Segundo’s aerospace industries to residential areas in Torrance and the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The city government has resisted efforts to make traffic flow more smoothly. It is currently defying Caltrans’ proposals to ban parking on Pacific Coast Highway to make it six lanes during rush hour.

‘Caught in the Middle’

“We are caught in the middle of things that are not of our making,” said Hermosa Beach Mayor Jack Wood.

“We have El Segundo blithely building the daylights out of all that commercial development. They are getting environmental impact reports that end at the city line and they are smiling at everyone. The communities on (Palos Verdes Peninsula) are building the daylights out of residential and patting themselves on the back that they are low density and high ecology.

“And the people who work in El Segundo and live on the Hill are going through Hermosa Beach. The highway was not designed to carry that traffic. We don’t want a superhighway in Hermosa Beach and we are not going to have one. It is not to the benefit of our citizens.”

While still small in effect, another approach to easing congestion--company-sponsored ride-sharing and commuter buses--is growing rapidly.

Increased Commuter Interest

Interest in car pools and van pools has jumped, according to Commuter Computer, a program that coordinates the effort in Southern California. In 1981, 81,763 people sought information about car pools, and 5,733 wanted to find out about van pools. By 1985, the number of car-pool seekers rose 131% to 188,737 while the number interested in van pools leaped 153% to 14,517. In the South Bay, the number sharing rides is estimated to be about 2,200.

“The bottom line is that it is becoming socially acceptable for people to do it,” said Commuter Computer’s Donald Lucas, who deals with the large aerospace companies in El Segundo. “People used to be threatened by the word car pool . At any of the Hughes groups, it is seen as status to be seen in a van.”

At the end of 1981, the first year Hughes Aircraft began its van pools, the aerospace giant had 22 van pools and 286 van poolers. Today, it has 246 vans carrying 3,198 employees.

“In the beginning,” said Barbara Lendman, van fleet administrator for Hughes, “it was hard to get them out of their cars because they had this love for their cars (and) they wanted to come and go when they want. But the traffic got worse every year.”

The vans now range farther and farther--91 miles down to Carlsbad, 81 miles out to San Bernardino, even 78 miles across mountains to Lake Elsinore--contributing to convenience for employees but also adding to congestion elsewhere. “A lot of people have found that the vans allow them to expand past the work site to find affordable housing. Having the van pools has enabled them to move farther out,” Lendman said.

40-Minute Naps

Tony Faura, 28, lived in nearby Hawthorne until he got married and decided he wanted to buy a house. “We couldn’t afford a house in this area,” the Hughes employee said. “We bought a home in Garden Grove.” He uses the 40-minute van ride for naps.

Hughes started a subsidized commuter bus service about three years ago for the 70% of its employees who live within 15 miles of El Segundo. Six hundred to 700 employees pay $9 a week to take the company-chartered buses. “If we don’t do something, these roads will clog up without a doubt,” said George MacFarlane, Hughes assistant director of corporate services.

The programs, despite their successes, have yet to keep up with Hughes employment increases: About 3,600 Hughes employees got into vans or buses between 1981 and 1985; during the same time span, the company added about 8,200 to its El Segundo payroll.

Bus patronage in the South Bay is up as a whole, despite a slight decline after RTD raised its fares from 50 to 85 cents July 1. SCAG analysts predict little opportunity for expansion of the bus system because of funding constraints, and consequently little traffic relief from additional people taking the bus.

Despite the increased interest in ride-sharing, the most recent Caltrans figures show that driving alone remains the preferred way of commuting. Caltrans documented a three-year decline in the average number of people in vehicles. The data shows that the number of car pools remained about the same. The Caltrans report said the decline in vehicle occupancy was caused by an increased number of people driving alone.

Ride Sharing Slipped

In El Segundo, support for company-sponsored busing and ride-sharing slipped from a position of top priority of the influential El Segundo Employers Assn. about two years ago.

Although the organization had made that the first order of business in 1981 when it was founded, “in 1983, after a couple of years of this, (employers) had people on staff who knew the costs of these programs and they could make rational decisions on what to do with them,” said Donald Camph, the executive director who was hired then to give the organization a new direction. “The question was, ‘What to do now?’ ”

Now, while ride-sharing remains an important item on the association’s agenda, the organization’s top priority is lobbying for more money for transportation improvements, such as the additional lanes on the San Diego Freeway and an extension of the planned Century Freeway light rail into El Segundo, Camph said.

The ride-sharing movement suffered a setback Oct. 4 when the South Coast Air Quality Control Board killed a proposal requiring large employers to offer employees ride-sharing incentives, saying its adoption would have been “a first step” toward mandatory ride-sharing. The board’s staff estimated the proposal would have taken as many as 200,000 cars a day off area freeways.

One factor that could diminish freeway congestion is affordable rental housing closer to work, which is becoming increasingly available as developers respond to impatience with long hours of commuting, and lowered interest rates make rental construction attractive.

Apartment construction is at record levels in Hawthorne, where rents average between $525 and $725 for one- and two-bedroom units.

Interviews with officials, developers and new residents indicate that the hot real estate market, also in evidence in Lawndale, other areas near El Segundo and Gardena, reflects commuters’ desire to avoid long drives to and from work.

R. E. Cormier, an engineer who works in the Hughes Electro-Optical and Data Systems Group, used to rise at 5 a.m. for a daily drive from Canoga Park in the San Fernando Valley to his job in El Segundo.

The drive took him 30 to 45 minutes “if you are lucky.”

5-Minute Drive

“If not, you are talking 1 1/2 hours,” he said. He survived two major accidents on the freeway before he saw the light. Now he lives in Hawthorne and drives to work in five minutes.

“It is the only way to go,” he said.

Kindra England, 21, a manufacturing and engineering planner at Hughes, now lives in El Segundo. “I moved there to be close to work. I used to live in Anaheim Hills,” she said. It took her one to two hours a day to commute when she lived there.

But the flip side of the growing urbanization that is taking traffic off freeways is the congestion it is bringing to South Bay neighborhoods with streets designed for single-family homes.

Complaints about this sort of traffic are a regular refrain at city councils in the South Bay. Lawndale is in the midst of a city-wide study of traffic that will focus on neighborhood traffic patterns.

Synchronizing traffic lights so a driver maintaining a constant speed can roll right along is a priority in several cities. It is also the focus of cooperative efforts among cities trying to smooth traffic flow along one highway that traverses several city boundaries.

Computerized Signals

Inglewood was a pioneer in the South Bay in computerizing its signals, installing a system in 1976. The system, which set the timing of 108 lights based on the history of traffic counts, now is being updated so that the timing can be adjusted to current traffic conditions.

Torrance will be installing such a system soon. In 1979, Caltrans installed the switching to synchronize signals on Hawthorne Boulevard between Pacific Coast Highway and the San Diego Freeway.

Caltrans is working on extending synchronization along Artesia Boulevard westward from Inglewood Avenue to Sepulveda Boulevard.

“Provided everything is working smoothly, it will take 10 minutes to go from Sepulveda to Vermont. Now it takes about 20 to 25 minutes,” said Ed Nahabedian, Caltrans traffic operations engineer for the South Bay.

The South Bay’s municipal transportation planners are working on a lot more than signal synchronization. The list ranges from left-turn lanes and road extensions to drainage ditches intended to speed traffic after a downpour.

Improvements Planned

In Torrance, 107 projects have been completed since 1977 at a cost of $25 million and another 83 projects with a price tag of $26 million have been proposed for the period ending in June, 1989. These include the extension of Lomita Boulevard from Anza Avenue to Palos Verdes Boulevard and $2.5-million in improvements to Prairie Avenue and Carson Street.

In Gardena, the city has just finished widening Redondo Beach Boulevard at a cost of $1 million. An ongoing project will put a 2 1/2-inch asphalt overlay on Western Avenue between Compton Avenue and 146th Street, smoothing out eroded roadway.

Notwithstanding the long list of improvements, the official projection remains gloomy:

“The level of service on many routes in the system is declining and present funding levels are not sufficient to maintain even present service or provide improvements to meet existing or projected new demand,” according to a Caltrans report that describes current prospects for Los Angeles County.

The SCAG report on the area near Los Angeles International Airport reached the same conclusion: “Under the best 1987 and 1992 scenarios, the average traffic volumes in all the arterials will still increase by 27% and 23% respectively over the 1980 average volumes.”

“It is bad,” said Jacki Bacherach, chairman of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission and resident of Rancho Palos Verdes. “Anybody who lives in the South Bay knows that.”