The Times Poll : San Fernando Valley Residents Favor Extreme Measures to Control Traffic

Most San Fernando Valley residents are so distressed about traffic congestion that they favor such controversial proposals as double-decking the Ventura Freeway, restricting a freeway lane to car-pools and building a rail line through residential neighborhoods, The Los Angeles Times Poll has found.

Most of those polled said they were willing to leave their cars at home and take the train. A large number voiced a willingness to pay higher taxes for more public transportation.

“Across the board, people seem to be saying that traffic is terrible and we want something, almost anything, done to relieve it, even if it costs money,” Times Poll Director I. A. Lewis said.

The poll, conducted a week ago, suggests that the views of the majority may differ sharply from positions taken by leaders of homeowners’ groups, whose opposition has made elected officials shy away from some ideas. For example, homeowner leaders oppose putting an upper deck on the Ventura Freeway or creating freeway lanes restricted to car-pools and buses. But the poll found support for both.

Making a new freeway lane a bus- and-car-pool “diamond” lane--which critics say will not stimulate ride sharing and is unfair to those who cannot participate in car-pools--was favored by more than half of all those polled. Of those who had an opinion, 60% voiced approval.

A plan to put a second deck on the Ventura Freeway received a thumbs-up from nearly two-thirds of those who expressed opinions. However, 35% were not prepared to do so.

Critics say the upper deck would be a noisy eyesore and would encourage population growth, while proponents say growth is inevitable and double-decking is one way to cope with it.

The poll found no clear favorite among three proposed rail routes. The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission is studying San Fernando Valley rail options and plans to choose a route by next October. A San Fernando Valley line would connect to the downtown-to-North Hollywood Metro Rail subway under construction.

Homeowner-group leaders have fiercely opposed both the freeway and a route paralleling Chandler and Victory boulevards on the grounds that residential neighborhoods would be harmed by noise and congestion. Nonetheless, more than two-thirds of those polled were for a light rail or subway or either.

Encino homeowner leader Gerald A. Silver, undaunted by the poll results, said homeowner groups will continue working to “stop the tyranny of the majority. “It’s very easy for the rest of the (San Fernando) Valley that doesn’t live near the freeway to say double-deck it or build a rail line on it,” Silver said.

The poll found that a large number of people think traffic congestion is a serious problem, with 43% rating it “very serious” and 29% saying it is “somewhat serious.”

Raising the sales tax another half-cent--to 7%--for transit projects commanded the support of 48% of those responding, with 43% opposed. Three-fourths of the San Fernando Valley residents also said they would ride a train at least part of the time.

The Times polled 616 adult San Fernando Valley residents by telephone Oct. 16. On any question there was a possibility of an error of 5 percentage points in either direction.