Getting There: : San Diegans Turn to Church for Ride

Tickets in hand, the majority of San Diegans traveling to see Pope John Paul II in Los Angeles on Tuesday have placed their faith in transportation plans put together by the San Diego Roman Catholic Church Diocese.

Individual travelers wending their own way north may face traffic gridlock once they arrive but will likely not face congestion on their way to Pope-related events, according to the California Highway Patrol in San Diego.

Msgr. Francis Pattison, San Diego diocesan papal visit coordinator, said 224 buses carrying about 5,000 people, 640 people taking a train, and more than 6,000 people traveling by car account for the almost 12,500 free tickets allocated to the San Diego diocese for the 6 p.m. Mass in the Los Angeles Coliseum, the main focus of San Diego involvement.

The downtown Los Angeles motorcade from 10:30 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. has not drawn interest locally, he said, primarily because “going from San Diego to L.A. for a motorcade is a lot of work. It’s too much to try and take in the motorcade, too.”

Avoiding Congestion

Many congestion-busting steps at both government and private sector levels in Los Angeles are planned in anticipation of the papal motorcade--the only totally public event of the Pope’s two-day visit--and the Coliseum and Dodger Stadium Masses. Street closings have postponed the beginning of the Los Angeles Unified School District school year for a day, and city and county hearings normally scheduled for Tuesday have been postponed.

Automobile Club of Southern California offices in San Diego County reported few or no calls from people interested in travel advice. The Escondido office had the most calls, with 15 inquiries in the past week seeking tips on how to avoid traffic, said Karen Bell, senior service representative. “For them, we look into our crystal ball . . . and provide them with information we have on road closures,” she said.

Gladys Martin, downtown office senior service representative, said she believes San Diegans are “staying away” because of traffic. Or, perhaps they are planning to watch the live television broadcasts from home.

Crowd Expected

However, a million or more people are expected to jam 7.2 miles of city sidewalks to watch the pontiff meander in his Mercedes Popemobile through several neighborhoods, winding up near St. Vibiana’s Cathedral, two blocks from City Hall.

Officer Gary Alfonzo, a California Highway Patrol public affairs coordinator in San Diego, said he knows of no projections on the number of people traveling from San Diego, and he has not received any calls for traffic tips.

“We’re not anticipating any traffic problems other than normal,” he said of traveling Interstates 5 and 405 to Los Angeles.

“L.A. recommends going as early as possible to avoid traffic delays or going up the night before so you can rest and relax without the frustration,” he said. “Two days before would be even better.”

Most buses are full. Aztec Bus Lines reported they were “sold out” two months ago, the first week the Pope announced his visit, said Kim Myers, senior sales representative for Aztec Bus Lines. Pattison said most buses will leave between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. from different churches in the county. Those buses have two designated parking lots at the western end of the Coliseum.

Pattison said there are about 100 free tickets left for the Mass. On Friday, he said St. Michael’s Catholic Church had 30 vacancies on its buses.

A few days ago there were only 10 seats left on the train leaving at 9:45 a.m., Pattison said. The San Diego Diocese has chartered one train coming back that night, said Diane Plaster, secretary at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church.

Be Prepared

For those going to Los Angeles by car, be prepared.

Though Olympics-era strategy will be repeated Tuesday, planners view the papal motorcade-related congestion as potentially much worse than anything envisioned during the 1984 Summer Games. Unlike the papal parade, the Olympics never forced the 95,000 morning rush-hour commuters who normally pour into the Central Business District to contend with street or freeway on- and off-ramp closures. Nor did street closings bar late arrivers from pulling into their regular parking places or block cars of early arrivers from leaving most of the day.

Even during the worst-case Olympic traffic projections, bus riders heading downtown would have fared substantially better than they will on Tuesday morning, when tens of thousands of them will be dropped off several blocks from their usual spots, possibly in unfamiliar areas because of closed streets.

How commuters, bus riders and parade spectators deal with the papal motorcade could determine whether the city wins another temporary battle in the modern war against traffic gridlock.

“If people don’t heed the advice and the crowd is large, then no matter what we do in terms of traffic signal timing and police officers and traffic officers and barricading and engineers in the field and cones and signs and buses, we’re going to have congestion,” said Thomas Conner, a traffic planner for the City of Los Angeles.

It is expected that many businesses near the parade route, such as gas stations, will set up temporary pay lots. Some parking restrictions normally enforced that day on cross-streets will be on a holiday schedule for several blocks to ease the problem.

To reduce the traffic impact at the Coliseum, the gates will open at 1 p.m. so that the 110,000 ticket-holders for the Mass can begin to filter in early and be in their seats by 4 p.m. On Wednesday night, no one without a ticket to the Dodger Stadium Mass will be permitted on the grounds, but police are still expecting possible crowds of the curious.