Doubling of Fines for Car-Pool Lane Abusers Wins OK

The Assembly, amid rancorous debate and the shuffling of some longstanding political alliances, on Thursday approved legislation that would double the maximum fine for motorists who violate rules governing freeway car-pool lanes.

The Assembly’s bipartisan 45-15 vote came after the measure was linked to the long and bitter fight over car-pool lanes themselves, which are strongly supported by many lawmakers as a solution to California’s urban traffic woes but just as strenuously opposed by those who see them as a violation of individual rights.

The measure was returned to the Senate for approval of minor amendments.

Carried by Ferguson

The bill, proposed by the Orange County Transportation Commission and authored by Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), was carried on the Assembly floor by Assemblyman Gil Ferguson, a conservative Newport Beach Republican who is normally one of the Legislature’s most vocal opponents of car-pool lanes.

Although Ferguson has helped lead the fight against the special lanes on the Costa Mesa Freeway, he said Thursday that the increased fines were necessary to ensure that the lanes are as safe as possible as long as they cannot be eliminated.

The measure was particularly aimed at lanes, like those on the Costa Mesa Freeway, that are separated from the rest of the highway only by double yellow lines. The bill would increase the maximum fine for illegally crossing the lines to $500 from the current $250.

Ferguson said the fines today are too low to prevent accidents caused by “desperate, frustrated” drivers who, backed up in rush-hour traffic, cannot resist slipping illegally into the free-flowing car-pool lanes.

He urged his colleagues to vote for the bill “whether we like HOV lanes or not, so we can save people’s lives.”

The bill’s opponents chided Ferguson for supporting an idea originally pushed by former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. and his controversial transportation director, Adriana Gianturco, whose support for mass transit at the expense of freeways often angered the state’s business community.

“I want to commend Mr. Ferguson for having the same visionary qualities as Gov. Moonbeam,” said Assemblyman Charles M. Calderon (D-Alhambra). “It’s interesting that now Orange County is coming into the whole diamond lane debate. The only problem is, we’ve tried diamond lanes and they don’t work.”

Lanes Blamed for Accidents

Assemblyman Tom McClintock, a Thousand Oaks Republican who has blocked car-pool lane proposals in Ventura County, said the lanes, not errant drivers, were to blame for accidents.

“It is a stupid idea; it is a stupid bill, and I’d ask for a no vote,” McClintock said.

And Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Huntington Beach) said he opposed the bill because he “didn’t believe in the damn things at all.”

“I believe HOV lanes are the federal government’s, Caltrans’ and the governor’s nostrum for trying to control and manage traffic and people’s lives and how they choose to get to work,” Frizzelle said.

But Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda), chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, sought to court Republican votes for the bill by pointing out that Robert Best, Gov. George Deukmejian’s designee to be the next director of Caltrans, supports car-pool lanes.

“Mr. Best was recently quoted as saying that high-occupancy vehicle lanes are a major part of the solution to California’s traffic problems,” Katz said. “So on behalf of Gov. Deukmejian’s transportation expert, I’d ask for an aye vote.”