Plan for Ventura Freeway : Backers, Opponents Clash at ‘Diamond Lane’ Hearing

A proposal to restrict a new eastbound lane on the Ventura Freeway to car pools and buses drew a mixed reaction at a public hearing Tuesday.

The restricted lane, popularly called a “diamond lane,” drew support from several representatives of major employers and a handful of individual car poolers.

But three state legislators and two homeowner organizations attacked the state Department of Transportation plan.

Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Camarillo) opposed the diamond lane, saying it could cause congestion and accidents and “will not be tolerated by the motoring public.”

On the other hand, veteran car-pooler Ken Bauer, a Westlake Village resident, told the crowd of 150 at the hearing in Van Nuys that said such a lane would “clear up the other lanes for everyone else.”

The new, eastbound lane would be created between Topanga Canyon Boulevard and the Hollywood Freeway by narrowing the existing lanes from 12 feet to 11 and using the median strip. A new westbound lane along the same 13-mile stretch would be open to all vehicles.

The $12-million project is scheduled for completion in March, 1989.

A 68-member citizens’ advisory committee is scheduled to vote in February on whether the eastbound lane is to be a diamond land. Caltrans, which conducted the hearing, has said it will abide by the group’s recommendation.

Proponents of the diamond lanes say they serve as an incentive to motorists to form car pools and ride buses.

Caltrans officials have acknowledged, however, that new diamond lanes on the Costa Mesa (55) and Artesia (91) freeways have not led to increases in riders per vehicle.

On both freeways the occupancy rate has remained at about 1.20 persons, which Caltrans said is the norm for all of Southern California.

But Caltrans officials have said that average travel time on the eight-mile Artesia Freeway lane has dropped from 30 minutes to 15 minutes.

In asking for more time to build car pools, Caltrans planners have repeatedly pointed to the experience on the El Monte Busway, an 11-mile westbound lane of the San Bernardino Freeway from El Monte to downtown Los Angeles.

It was opened in 1973 to buses and to car pools in 1977, and per-vehicle occupancy on the busway has grown steadily from 1.2 persons to 1.45 persons, Caltrans said.

A typical response to Caltrans’ citing of the El Monte Busway as evidence that a diamond lane would work in the San Fernando Valley was expressed by Drivers for Highway Safety, an Orange County-based group fighting all car-pool lanes.

Busway Isolated

“The busway is isolated from mixed-flow traffic by either a concrete barrier or a 14-foot-wide buffer zone,” Joe C. Catron, the group’s chairman, said in a prepared statement, “and most of the people are carried on buses, not in car pools.”

Along with other critics, Catron contends that the unchanged occupancy rates on the Costa Mesa and Artesia freeways indicate that “commuters who could benefit from car pooling were already doing so.”

Critics also have attacked Caltrans’ attempts to convince the Ventura Freeway advisory committee that a diamond lane will reduce accidents.

After releasing two sets of statistics that were subsequently withdrawn, Caltrans now says that accidents along the Costa Mesa freeway diamond lane increased 30% in the months after the lane was opened.