Fast Talk’s No Answer on Fast Lane

If nothing else, the car-pool lanes on the Costa Mesa Freeway have fattened California Highway Patrol Officer James Church’s file of memorable excuses.

Before the lanes first went into operation on an experimental basis 14 months ago, the most common excuse Church heard while writing tickets for moving violations was the old standard: “But officer, I didn’t know I was speeding.”

Today, drivers’ repertoires have expanded to cover the Costa Mesa Freeway’s two new sins--driving in a car-pool lane without a passenger and crossing the double yellow lines that separate the lane from the rest of the freeway. Church says this is a favorite: “I was forced into the lane and would have gotten hit if I didn’t.” Or there’s this variation: “I drove into the lane to keep from rear-ending the car in front of me.”

But the first excuse Church heard while patrolling during evening rush hour Monday--the day the Orange County Transportation Commission voted 5 to 2 to make the heretofore experimental lanes permanent--was much less original. And it wasn’t any more effective either.

Church was driving northbound on the Costa Mesa Freeway near Edinger Avenue at 4:35 p.m. when a navy blue Honda Prelude with a cellular phone and vanity license plates that read “Kimster” caught his eye.

The driver was zipping along in the car-pool lane--alone--when she saw Church’s black-and-white about five cars ahead. She hit the brakes and tried to change lanes to get back into the 25-m.p.h.-traffic with the rest of the solitary commuters.

Too Late; Too Bad

But it was too late. Church flashed his red light, pulled her over and asked to see her registration and license. The 28-year-old Thousand Oaks woman rummaged through her purse, handed the documents to Church through the open sunroof and said:

“But, officer, I just got in there to pass the traffic and didn’t see the signs.”

Since November, 1985, highway patrol officers have written more than 5,000 tickets for car-pool lane violations, CHP spokesman Paul Caldwell had said. And on Monday, Church added four more citations to that total on the lanes’ first day of permanent operation.

Although the CHP has taken a neutral stance on the controversial lanes, Caldwell said, “we are in favor of anything that helps resolve traffic congestion in a safe manner. Our experience so far with the car-pool lane out there is that it’s done just that.”

Church said Monday that he has seen one dramatic benefit since the car-pool lanes were installed: “My own personal observation is it seems to me we have had a lot less motorcycle accidents since it (the car-pool lane experiment) has been put in.”

Motorcyclists are allowed to use the 11.1 miles of car-pool lanes between the Riverside and San Diego freeways without passengers. As a result they do not have to weave through lines of stopped cars, a dangerous but legal maneuver called “splitting lanes.”

Among the other benefits are the yarns that the car-pool lanes have added to the store of highway patrol mythology.

Some drivers have tried to sneak into the lanes--where vehicles often race along while the rest of the freeway traffic stands motionless--by tying helium balloons with hats to the passenger seats, Church said.

Others have slung coats over the headrests to obfuscate CHP officers’ views. One man argued that his Labrador retriever qualified as a car-pool passenger. It did not.

“Blow-up dolls aren’t very good either,” Church said. “They don’t have any reactions.”

Last week a pregnant Fullerton woman convinced a Municipal Court judge that her unborn child counted as a passenger, and he dismissed her ticket.

But Church’s personal favorite happened some months ago. A CHP officer allegedly was driving next to the car-pool lane and noticed a car with a particularly odd-looking passenger, a short, shiny kind of guy.

As the car drove past the officer, the passenger turned and waved a mechanical arm, Church said. But it didn’t work.

Unfortunately, robots do not qualify as car-pool passengers either.

Car-pool lanes get new lease on life. Part I, Page 1.