Time to Plan for Traffic Jams

Last Monday’s start of $34 million worth of improvements to the San Diego Freeway (I-405)--and other planned freeway widenings--should persuade residents and business firms that alternatives must be sought to diminish the inevitable congestion the projects will cause.

Faced with at least two years of disruptive construction and the accompanying frustrations and delays that will occur no matter how much Caltrans promises to keep them at a minimum, the increased use of car and van pools and staggered working hours are the most reasonable alternatives remaining to help keep congestion within livable limits.

In today’s urban Orange County, surface streets and highways are often as congested as the freeways, providing few alternate routes for motorists to save time and frazzled nerves.

Not everyone can take advantage of car and van pools. And not everyone can use them every day. But as traffic congestion increases, so do the car pools.

In 1982, when the Orange County Transit District began its ride-sharing match-up program, it placed 1,848 people in car pools. Last year it found rides for more than 7,000 workers. In all, the district has put about 20,000 commuters into car pools in the last five years.

The major construction projects should prompt more motorists to call the district’s 636-RIDE number.

It should also encourage employers to stagger starting times as the county government decided to do when it learned that nearly 70% of its 12,000 employees now commute during the 7 a.m.-to-8 a.m. peak-hour traffic.

A recent transit district survey of 107 randomly picked business firms in the county discovered that 19% of the companies queried had some kind of flexible scheduling. That’s good, but it’s not good enough considering that the already slow freeway commuting in the county is going to get a lot worse before some of the widening projects are completed in 1989.