Countywide : Wieder Asks Business to Help Solve Transit Woes

Orange County businesses must help solve regional transportation problems, perhaps by changing shifts for their workers or schedules for their deliveries, Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder said Monday.

“Changing work hours or delivery schedules through private-public cooperation might not be as dramatic as building new freeways,” Wieder said at the supervisors’ annual lunch with the Orange County Chamber of Commerce. “But it does not take much to make a big difference. That was proven during the Olympics.”

“By adjusting our schedules to avoid an anticipated traffic nightmare, we ended up making our freeways more free-flowing than they had ever been. Let’s recapture that Olympic experience,” she urged, referring to the 1984 Games, when fears of massive traffic jams proved unfounded.

Wieder also told the businessmen that “those of you who operate large fleets of cars and trucks” should switch to a cleaner fuel, such as methanol, and organize car pools for employees or risk government passage of new laws requiring such actions.

Wieder, chairman of the county Transportation Commission and a member of local and state boards monitoring air quality, said that without changes in life styles, Southern California will be unable to meet federal air quality standards.

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley sounded an optimistic note on the issue of transportation.

Riley said that construction of the San Joaquin Freeway could begin by mid-1990. The freeway ultimately will run from Interstate 5 at Avery Parkway through the San Joaquin Hills and connect with the Corona del Mar Freeway.