Diamond Lane Plan on Ventura Fwy. Imperiled

An advisory committee narrowly endorsed Thursday night a proposal to create a “diamond lane” on the eastbound half of the Ventura Freeway in the San Fernando Valley, but by a vote so close it appeared that the project is in jeopardy.

Responding to the narrow margin of passage, opponents of the plan to limit the lane to use by buses and car pools predicted that they will prevail when the state Department of Transportation announces its decision on the lane today. The vote by representatives of businesses, elected officials and homeowners was 22 in favor of a diamond lane, 20 for a lane open to all vehicles, and three for no new lanes at all.

The new lane, along with an unrestricted westbound lane, would be added to the freeway, the nation’s busiest with 270,000 vehicles daily, for the 13 miles between Topanga Canyon Boulevard and the Hollywood Freeway.

The advisory committee’s vote was regarded as crucial because Caltrans had said in advance it would abide by the committee’s decision.

Donald L. Watson, Caltrans’ Southern California district director, said following the vote that his agency “has said all along we will not go forward unless there is a consensus.”

While refusing to indicate what course of action he will recommend to Caltrans Director Leo J. Trombatore, Watson said he “will give significant weight to the fact that it was not a majority vote and to the fact that there is a large body of legislators opposed, as well as the county Board of Supervisors.”

Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Camarillo), a leader of the opposition, said, “I think they’re going to see the light and drop the diamond lane.

If so, it could be a blow to Caltrans’ long-range plan to add diamond lanes to half a dozen other Los Angeles freeways, including the San Diego and Hollywood freeways.

The diamond-lane concept is at the forefront of Caltrans’ strategy for dealing with worsening Southland freeway congestion. Because the freeways in many places are already at capacity in terms of the number of vehicles they handle, and because little room is generally available for creating additional lanes, Caltrans says the only hope for moving more people on the freeways is to increase vehicle occupancy rates.

Even if Caltrans elects to go ahead, the diamond lane may have been dealt a fatal blow Tuesday when it was opposed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Legislation passed in 1984 requires that two-thirds of the 11-member Los Angeles County Transportation Commission approve a diamond lane on the Ventura Freeway. All five county supervisors are members of the transportation commission, in effect giving them veto power over the car-pool lane.

Although the supervisors’ 4-0 vote against the lane Tuesday was only an expression of sentiment, it suggests there will not be the eight votes required on the commission to approve a diamond lane.

The advisory committee, which is similar to those overseeing diamond lanes on the Costa Mesa (California 55) and Artesia (California 91) freeways, was created by Caltrans 11 months ago to build support for a Valley car-pool lane.

Officials said that by creating favorable sentiment in advance, they hoped to avoid a repeat of the storm of controversy that greeted the short-lived Santa Monica Freeway diamond lane in 1976.

Unlike the diamond lanes currently in use and proposed, the Santa Monica Freeway project involved the conversion of a lane in general use into a restricted lane, which Caltrans says caused much of the opposition. That diamond lane was halted by court order after five months.

The Ventura Freeway’s new eastbound lane would be created by narrowing the existing lanes from 12 feet to 11 and using part of the median strip.

The $12-million project, which includes a westbound lane open to all vehicles, is scheduled for completion in March, 1989.

The car-pool lane has been enthusiastically promoted by most representatives of major employers in the Valley, who say that they are concerned that future freeway congestion will make it increasingly difficult to attract employees.

But opponents say that the special lanes cause accidents and that the claimed benefits are unproved. Critics attribute increases in accidents on the Costa Mesa and Artesia freeways to the speed differential between cars and buses in a diamond lane and other vehicles caught in heavy congestion a few feet away.