Car-Pool Lanes Are Needed

A citizens’ advisory group has recommended that the experimental car-pool lanes along the Costa Mesa Freeway (California 55) be made permanent. It’s a recommendation the Orange County Transportation Commission and Caltrans should approve.

The commuter lanes were launched on an experimental basis in November, 1985, in the hope of saving travel time and easing traffic congestion for all motorists. With a population growth and traffic count far exceeding the county’s freeway capacity (the county has fewer freeway miles per resident than most other major urban areas) and inadequate local, state and federal funds to provide the needed additonal traffic lanes even if they were environmentally acceptable, other ways of using the existing traffic lanes more efficiently had to be found.

The express lanes are one good alternative. The car-pool lanes aren’t perfect by any means. They need a better separation system to keep motorists in the adjacent fast lane from swerving into the commuter lane. That change will help reduce accidents and the illegal and dangerous lane changes. Also needed are better markings, better policing and a restudying of the lane’s entry and exit points.

Transportation officials as well as the committee that recommended permanent status recognize that such improvements must be made as part of any permanent plan.

But essentially, the lanes passed the test. Traffic statistics compiled by Caltrans show that their use is growing. They are carrying more people in fewer vehicles than a mixed-flow lane could. Car-pooling has increased, making the Costa Mesa Freeway second only to the El Monte Busway on the San Bernardino Freeway in the number of riders per vehicle in the Greater Los Angeles area. And travel times for all users of the freeway have been reduced.

With continued use and design improvements, the performance results are bound to improve. The mistake would not be in making the express lanes on the Costa Mesa Freeway permanent, but in removing them--and losing a proven alternative that enables Orange County’s overburdened freeway system to carry more motorists.