Car-Pool Lanes Cause 11% Increase in Accidents, Researchers Find

The controversial car-pool lanes on the Costa Mesa Freeway have led to an estimated 11% increase in accidents, mostly at access and exit points, according to a UC Irvine study.

That “translates into approximately 10 additional accidents per month,” the study stated. There has been a “significant” increase in rear-end collisions and in accidents involving cars slowing or stopped near access and exit points, according to the study. Those figures offer evidence of a “possible” problem involving merging traffic that appears to be “congestion related,” the study concluded.

The findings, provided by researchers at the campus-based Institute of Transportation Studies under contract to the Orange County Transportation Commission, were immediately disputed by Drivers for Highway Safety, a small citizens group. Bill Ward, spokesman for the group, said the UCI researchers underestimated the number of accidents attributable to the car-pool lanes. Ward claimed that the special lanes have increased collisions by about 30%.

Ward said he will present his own data at a meeting this morning of a citizens advisory committee sponsored by the county Transportation Commission.

Earlier interim reports from the Institute at UCI acknowledged an upward trend in accidents but were noncommittal about whether the car-pool lanes played any greater role than other factors, such as narrower general traffic lanes created to accommodate the car-pool lanes.

A final report due in June is expected to compare car-pool-lane accidents with what might occur if the lanes were opened to regular traffic, commission Executive Director Stan Oftelie said.

Lanes Stretch 11.5 Miles

Opened in November, 1985, the car-pool lanes extend for 11.5 miles in each direction between the Riverside Freeway in Anaheim Hills and the San Diego Freeway in Costa Mesa. The lanes are restricted to vehicles carrying two or more people and to motorcycles. After a one-year experiment, county and state transportation officials agreed to keep the special lanes indefinitely, but with improved signs, raised pylons to separate the lane from adjacent, slower-moving traffic, and re-striping of the pavement.

Although the citizens advisory committee is expected to discuss the UCI report this morning, Oftelie predicted that the figures won’t undermine the group’s support for the car-pool lanes.

“It’s an interim report, and it should be viewed as just that,” Oftelie said. “They’ll wait for the final report, which will come out in two months.”

Oftelie said that statewide statistics show accidents generally cluster around on-ramps and off-ramps, so he is not surprised that the same is true for car-pool-lane access and exit points.

A report by the California Department of Transportation analyzing the first 15 months of the car-pool lanes shows that they are so popular during rush hours that the time saved by drivers using them is less now than it was a year ago. But the report also states that overall travel times are still less than without the lanes.

But Ward complained Tuesday that the average occupancy rate for vehicles using the freeway--1.25 people per vehicle, according to Caltrans--has not improved over 1984’s average. He said he obtained Caltrans data showing that in 1984, the rate was 1.26 people per vehicle. Caltrans officials could not be reached for comment.