Panel Drops Insistence on Diamond Lane for 101

The California Transportation Commission on Thursday dropped a controversial requirement that a new eastbound lane on the Ventura Freeway in the San Fernando Valley be a diamond lane.

Because of the commission’s unanimous decision, a sharply divided 68-member advisory committee studying whether to restrict the lane to car pools and buses is likely to have the final say on the issue.

The commission, which controls all highway spending in the state, in 1984 approved an $8-million, 13-mile project to add one lane in each direction from the Hollywood Freeway to Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Woodland Hills.

But commissioners, all of whom were appointed by the governor, stipulated that the eastbound lane be a diamond lane.

The Department of Transportation, which maintains that a diamond lane would increase the freeway’s carrying capacity, formed the advisory committee in April. The group was told it had the power to veto a diamond lane if it felt it would not work.

Committee members became irked, however, when they learned that the commission had already mandated the diamond lane. They prevailed on several Valley elected officials to lobby in Sacramento for removal of the provision.

Caltrans Has Misgivings

Caltrans officials at first said that returning to the commission raised the possibility of losing all funds for widening the U.S. 101 freeway, which carries about 270,000 vehicles daily, making it the state’s busiest highway.

“There would be a distinct possibility of an overreaction” by commissioners, said David Roper, Caltrans’ deputy director for Southern California.

And Allan Hendrix, Caltrans’ liaison to the commission, said, “Every area of the state has a project with a pretty high priority that would want those funds.”

But, at a meeting Thursday in Sacramento, the commission showed no reluctance to undo its earlier decision.

“It just makes sense for us to leave it open,” commission Vice Chairman William T. Bagley said. “Too often we try to play highway engineer. This is really no more than a question of mathematics.”

Staff members noted that, in 1984, several commissioners were holdover appointees of former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., who was a staunch advocate of using diamond lanes to save energy by forcing motorists to form car pools or ride buses. All current members of the commission were appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian.

Lanes Begun in 1976

The Brown Administration launched the controversial diamond lane in 1976 on the Santa Monica Freeway that was discontinued after five months of angry protests from motorists.

Unlike that diamond lane, the proposed Ventura Freeway car pool lane would not take away any lane now available to all vehicles.

The two new lanes on the freeway would be formed by narrowing the four existing lanes from the standard 12 feet to 11 feet and using the center median strip.

Diamond lanes created from space alongside the center divider have been opened within the last year on the Costa Mesa and Artesia freeways. Highway officials have pronounced both successful in reducing congestion.

Caltrans officials say they hope the advisory committee will make a decision by Sept. 1. They expect to open the new Ventura Freeway lanes in August or September of 1988.

The committee’s first four meetings have been marked by heated debates on the advisability of a car pool-bus lane.

Homeowner leaders have vigorously opposed the diamond lane, saying that those who can form car pools already have done so and that developers will use the car pool lane to argue for larger developments.

On the other hand, most representatives of Valley businesses have displayed at least mild interest in such a lane.

Members representing Valley elected officials have remained noncommittal, saying they will wait to see if Caltrans officials can prove that a diamond lane would encourage car pools and thereby reduce congestion.

If the advisory committee approves Caltrans’ diamond lane proposal, state law requires that the plan also be approved by two regional planning agencies, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission and the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

Roger L. Stanard, a Woodland Hills attorney who heads the advisory committee, called the commission’s removal of the diamond-lane-only provision an “expression of faith in the committee’s work and its ability to sift through the facts.”

He declined to predict what the committee will decide.