Smog Board Fights to Revive Diamond Lane

The South Coast Air Quality Management District board threatened Friday to go to court to revive a controversial plan for a diamond lane on the Ventura Freeway, nearly a year after Caltrans killed the proposal in response to widespread opposition in the San Fernando Valley.

The AQMD board approved sending a letter to the Federal Highway Administration demanding that federal funds be withheld from the upcoming widening of the freeway unless a new eastbound lane is restricted to car pools and buses.

The federal government is expected to pay about 85% of the $22-million cost of expanding the freeway to five lanes each way between the Hollywood Freeway and Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

The board’s decision, if implemented, might also be applied to nearly a dozen other Southern California freeways slated for widening over the next decade and tentatively identified by the state Department of Transportation as suited for diamond lanes, an AQMD spokesman said.

Caltrans recently formed an advisory committee to study whether new lanes to be added to the San Diego Freeway in the Westside and South Bay should be diamond lanes.

In recent years, state and federal transportation planners have increasingly come to view diamond lanes, three of which are in operation in Southern California, as essential for expanding freeway capacity at a time when funds for new freeways are scarce.

Under Fire

However, the restricted lanes have met stormy opposition in some quarters. Critics say diamond lanes increase accidents, are unproved as a device for inducing motorists to form car pools or ride buses, and are unfair to those who travel at varying times and cannot form car pools.

Before dropping the Ventura Freeway plan in February, Caltrans officials received more than 12,000 letters opposing a diamond lane.

Also, a Caltrans advisory committee on the Ventura Freeway plan split almost evenly, with almost all business representatives favoring a diamond lane, almost all homeowner representatives opposed and elected officials divided about evenly.

A federal spokesman disclosed Friday that Caltrans’ decision has not yet been approved by federal officials.

Glenn Clinton, the highway administration’s district director for Southern California, said the AQMD action is premature because, “at this point, we don’t know whether we will accept Caltrans’ decision or not.”

Caltrans’ action in dropping the Ventura Freeway diamond lane “was the catalyst for our decision to toughen our policy” in favor of diamond lanes, Clinton said. “As a result, before we commit funds, we are looking more closely at these decisions.”

The AQMD, facing a Dec. 31 deadline for meeting federal clean air standards, had not previously been involved in the debate over diamond lanes.

AQMD spokesman Tom Eichhorn said the district decided to become involved after board members noticed that the creation of diamond lanes is encouraged in the state’s plan for meeting the air standards.

“And federal law says that no arm of the federal government should support a project that does not conform to a state’s plan for cleaning up the air,” he said.

The letter authorized Friday says the AQMD is “prepared to take all steps necessary” to force the federal agency to withhold funds unless the Ventura Freeway project is altered to include an eastbound diamond lane.

While the letter does not mention legal action, Eichhorn said that “it’s safe to assume the board intends to take legal action, if necessary, since this was discussed in closed session and only matters of litigation can be discussed in closed sessions.”

2nd Project Not Affected

Although board members did not discuss applying the same standard to other freeway widenings, Eichhorn said, “it would seem to be logical that they would elect to do so if they succeed with the Ventura Freeway.”

The AQMD action does not apply to another Ventura Freeway widening project scheduled to begin late this month or in January.

In that $20.4-million project, the freeway will be expanded to four lanes each way between Topanga Canyon and Valley Circle boulevards.