How to Solve Traffic Tangles

“For the Costa Mesa Freeway, we will either establish a four-foot painted buffer . . . or we will convert it to a mixed flow lane.” So states Senator John Seymour (R-Anaheim).

Les Spahn, Caltrans chief of legislative affairs, says he refuses to predict that this additional 37-inch buffer width “will reduce accidents.”

An Orange County transportation commission spokesman predicts the taxpayers of Orange County will probably pay more than $3 million to install the 3-foot, 1-inch painted double yellow line.

I agree with Spahn that this new multimillion-dollar buffer width may or may not reduce accidents on the Costa Mesa Freeway. It seems that county and state officials want to continue to shove down the drivers’ throats a diamond lane that the overwhelming majority of those drivers do not approve of.

By Caltrans data, accident rates on the El Monte Freeway diamond lane rose by 40%, and painted buffer and concrete barrier widths on that special lane vary from 8 to 11 feet.

Before millions of dollars are spent on an unknown solution to this Costa Mesa Freeway problem, the diamond lane should be open to all traffic for a six-month comparison test. This should happen before our officials are allowed to dump millions of dollars into a special lane that just maybe would function better as a general purpose all-user lane.

JOE CATRON

Irvine

Catron is chairman of Drivers for Highway Safety.