Local News in Brief : Diamond Lane Rejected
The Deukmejian Administration has rejected a demand from Southern California air quality regulators that one of the new lanes on the Ventura Freeway in the San Fernando Valley be designated a “diamond lane,” restricted to car pools and buses, officials said Friday.
Administration officials have “told us to bug off,” said Larry Berg, a director of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which is pushing for the special lane.
Berg said the AQMD’s only remaining option appears to be a lawsuit aimed at forcing the state to create such a diamond lane, but he has not decided whether to call for a vote on such a suit when the AQMD board meets Friday.
The board, which is seeking to boost car-pooling throughout the region, voted 8 to 2 last month to give Caltrans a month to agree to reverse itself a second time and redesign the freeway widening to include an eastbound car-pool lane from Topanga Canyon Boulevard to the Hollywood Freeway.
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