Reporter’s Notebook : A Driven Explorer Pursues Ultimate Alternate Route

I sometimes fancy myself an intrepid urban explorer.

Like the time in New York when I discovered I could forgo the subway and walk to work across the Brooklyn Bridge. That is, until the dank summer arrived. There were no showers at The Wall Street Journal.

When I returned to California, I took up bicycling to work in Riverside. The newspaper there even installed special bike racks to encourage the practice. Again, no showers. But that wasn’t too bad. The heat was dry. A bigger problem was health-threatening smog, which accumulates in Riverside with the regularity of raindrops in Seattle.

Neither walking nor bicycling to work is practical for me now because of time, distance, and family obligations. So the big challenge in my daily commute from Seal Beach to The Times’ office in Costa Mesa is simply to avoid traffic congestion.

It has proven to be the most difficult challenge of all, and is personally significant since transportation in Orange County is part of my beat.

I can no longer predict which days will be best for joining the queues on the San Diego Freeway. Even without accidents, a trip that took me 25 minutes in 1976 now takes 45 minutes or more during the morning rush hour. Even my favorite Mozart tape and National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” no longer can keep me mollified on the freeway.

In the office one day, I thought out loud about taking a new shuttle van offered by the Orange County Transit District and South Coast Metro Alliance. It leaves from a parking lot near my house and stops in front of The Times’ plant. My boss said, “Forget it--your work hours are unpredictable. What would you do if we needed you to stay past the last shuttle departure at night?” Reporters don’t keep 9-5 hours.

Then Robert Best, Gov. George Deukmejian’s transportation chief, issued a challenge to the public generally. “Become smart drivers,” he said.

And so began my search for The Alternate Route.

Day One. I took the San Diego Freeway to Springdale Street, intending to hook up with Warner Avenue. Big mistake. There was a stop sign instead of a signal at the top of the off-ramp, which meant it took 5 minutes just to turn onto Springdale. Then, at Warner, an accident had traffic narrowed to one southbound lane. Trip time: 42 minutes.

Day Two. I took the San Diego Freeway to Beach Boulevard, then south to Talbert Avenue, where a bare-chested, scruffy-looking man pounded on my window and asked for money while I waited for the red light to change. The traffic on the Talbert Avenue bridge over the Santa Ana River was backed up all the way to Ward Street. Trip time: 44 minutes.

Day Three. I took Bolsa Chica Road to Warner Avenue, then down Beach Boulevard to Slater Avenue. An accident on Slater near Beach had traffic backed up a mile. A Huntington Beach cop stopped me to ask about my custom license plate--”A SNOOP.” He’s about the fourth law enforcement officer to do so since 1981. They usually ask if I’m with the CIA or KGB. Trip time: 40 minutes. There’s hope!

Day Four. I tried Pacific Coast Highway to Superior Avenue in Newport Beach, then north on Fairview Road. The friend who recommended this route didn’t tell me that a construction project on the highway would back up traffic north of the Santa Ana River, and that Superior doesn’t go through to Fairview. I got lost on Placentia Avenue in Costa Mesa, then lost again around the Mesa Verde Country Club. My tape deck jammed on “A Little Night Music.” Trip time: 59 minutes.

Day Five. A solution! Thirty minutes! I took Pacific Coast Highway to . . .

I’d be crazy to tell you the rest.