Car Pooling on Rise, Costa Mesa Freeway Report Says

A six-month experiment with high-speed bus and car-pool lanes on the Costa Mesa Freeway has produced an average 33% increase in car-pooling during peak afternoon rush hours, according to a Caltrans status report issued Tuesday.

It also has meant a reduction in travel time for all commuters, but that time-savings is gradually being eaten away as more drivers gravitate to the less congested freeway connecting Newport Beach and the Riverside Freeway, Caltrans spokesman David H. Roper said.

The rate of accidents since the commuter lanes opened last Nov. 18 has averaged 23 per week, compared to 25 per week during a seven-week period last fall, according to the report that Roper gave Tuesday to the Orange County Transportation Committee’s advisory body for the car-pooling experiment.

Roper also told the advisory subcommittee that the Costa Mesa Freeway now carries 1.21 people per car, making it the second highest-occupancy freeway in the Southland behind the San Bernardino Freeway.

“I would say the car-pool lanes continue to be successful,” said Roper, deputy director of operations for Caltrans’ regional office for Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

However, Drivers for Highway Safety, a group that says it represents 2,200 commuters unhappy with the car-pool lanes, remained skeptical of the report. Members on Tuesday renewed claims that Caltrans is in error when it compares current accident rates with the period last fall, when disruptive lane construction was under way.

Joe Catron, a former sports car racer from Yorba Linda who heads the group, declined comment on Tuesday’s data pending a full study. But he said that the data collected for the report appear to be “skewed” to create a favorable picture of the commuter-lane experiment’s progress.

Catron previously contended that the rate of accidents during the six-month experiment actually has jumped 77% in comparison with a three-year period before the commuter-lane project. Caltrans officials said, however, that a significant increase in traffic congestion in recent years cannot be measured on a three-year average.

Meanwhile, subcommittee chairman James H. Beam, who also is mayor of Orange, said Tuesday that he will propose that the OCTC open commuter lanes to single motorcycle riders with a view to increasing their safety.

Roper said he would generally oppose such a plan because it would seem unfair to lone drivers who could not take advantage of the fast-moving traffic lanes and could encourage violators.

But Catron said: “If one life is saved by letting motorcycles use that lane instead of weaving in and out of traffic, it’s worth it.”