Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : COUNTY : Car-Pool Lanes to Become Permanent

After a 15-month experiment, the Orange County Transportation Commission voted 5 to 2 to make the car-pool lanes a permanent fixture on the Costa Mesa Freeway (California 55.)

But the decision had plenty of escape hatches.

Commissioners conditioned their approval, which they can rescind at any time, on the California Department of Transportation’s willingness to improve the lanes and to continue quarterly reports on lane usage and safety. And Caltrans, which does not need the commission’s approval to create and operate the lanes, agreed.

The lanes have been criticized most vocally by Joe Catron, an organizer of Drivers for Highway Safety. His group has opposed the lanes from the beginning, then attacked Caltrans’ accident figures as “cooked” to make the lanes appear safer than they really are.

“If we don’t do something today, we could then be accused of doing nothing,” said commission Chairman Harriett M. Wieder, who was among those voting for the lanes.

Catron said he was “disappointed” by the commission vote but would wait to see whether the lanes’ safety record improves.

“We want to give the improvements a chance to see if the accident rate goes down,” he said. “After that, we would consider a class-action lawsuit, perhaps based on the danger the lanes pose to the motoring public.”