Freeways : Safety Fears Drive Group to Oppose Car-Pooling Lane

Joe Catron was driving along the Costa Mesa Freeway one day recently when the image of a Ford Pinto suddenly filled his rear-view mirror.

“The guy must have been doing better than 70,” said Catron, a former car dealer and amateur racer. “He got closer and closer and kept honking for me to get out of the way. That’s why I don’t like to be in ‘The Lane.’ ”

“The Lane” to which he was referring is the limited-access car-pool lane that stretches along 11.1 miles of the Costa Mesa Freeway; cars using it must carry at least two people. Last Wednesday was the second anniversary of its opening, and, according to state and county transportation officials, it is now used by more than 20,000 people daily.

But some would be surprised to see Catron using it.

The 61-year-old Yorba Linda resident is chairman of Drivers for Highway Safety, a small, Irvine-based group that claims the car-pool lane is unsafe because it puts cars traveling at high speeds inches away from slow-moving traffic, with no barrier between them.

Catron, the semiretired owner of a car leasing firm, said he initially welcomed the opening of the car-pool lane but became worried after watching it operate for a few days.

Drivers for Highway Safety has waged an unsuccessful, two-year campaign to have “The Lane” opened to all traffic for a six-month test to see whether it is being used in the most effective way. But state and county officials fear there would be a nasty public backlash if restrictions were re-imposed on the lane.

Catron’s organization has attracted as many as 200 people to its meetings--and as few as 18.

So far the group has had its biggest success outside Orange County. They helped San Fernando Valley residents kill Caltrans’ plans for a car-pool lane on the Ventura Freeway (U.S. 101).

“Unlike in Orange County, we were able to get there before the project was too far along,” Catron said.

In Orange County, officials say the group was partly responsible for the county Transportation Commission’s decision to finance a recent study by UC Irvine’s Institute of Transportation Studies on car-pool lane safety. The study concluded that the car-pool lane is as safe as a regular freeway lane.

Nonetheless, Stan Oftelie, executive director of the Transportation Commission, does not expect Drivers for Highway Safety to go away. “Some people are not influenced by facts,” he said.

Catron acknowledges that there have been no collisions involving fatalities in the car-pool lane on the Costa Mesa Freeway. But he and Bill Ward, an electronics engineer who is one of the group’s most active members, say that the UCI institute’s study was a “whitewash” and that several agencies such as the Transportation Commission have “manipulated” data to exaggerate both the safety and ride-sharers’ use of the lane.

Indeed, that’s the message the organization delivers in newspaper ads that solicit new members and announce the group’s plan to become a nonprofit, tax-exempt educational organization. The ads also charge that even Gov. George Deukmejian has been misled into supporting car-pool lanes.

Catron says the group’s goal is to generate a letter-writing campaign aimed at changing the governor’s mind. But then he adds quickly that people should not think Catron himself has ever opposed car pooling.

In fact, he says, the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s proposal to make car pooling mandatory is just fine with him.

“The beauty of it is that if you have all those people car pooling, you don’t need a special lane.”