Senate OKs 4-Foot Buffer for Car-Pool Lanes
A bill requiring all car-pool lanes in California to be separated from regular traffic by a minimum four-foot wide-buffer space was approved by the state Senate Friday and sent to the governor.
Introduced by state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), the bill reflected a compromise worked out earlier this year between Seymour and Caltrans over car-pool lanes on the Costa Mesa (California 55) Freeway.
Seymour supports car-pool lanes but was strongly critical of the California 55 project because it planned buffers of just eight inches. He had earlier included other design standards in his bill that would have been impossible for Caltrans to apply toward California 55 because of a lack of sufficient space.
The wider, striped buffer zones are intended to make the lanes safer.
Car-pool lanes are scheduled to be installed on the San Diego (Interstate 405) Freeway in Orange County within the next few months.
Coincidentally, the four-foot buffer requirement was adopted by the Federal Highway Administration at about the same time Seymour introduced his state legislation.
As part of the compromise, Seymour agreed to sponsor legislation that allows county officials to finance such projects with mass-transit funds.
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