Costa Mesa Freeway Captures Most Loathsome Title

Motorists in Orange County know their freeways about as well as they know their own back yards. In some cases, even better.

The ebb and flow of these rivers of traffic control our lives, shaping everything from where we live and work to our sleeping and eating habits. And all too often we curse them.

Recently, we gave local motorists a chance to vent, to select the Orange County freeway they feel is most loathsome. Now the results are in (a drum roll please). And the winner is: The Costa Mesa Freeway.

Just edging out the Santa Ana and Riverside freeways for top honors in our pageant, the Costa Mesa Freeway (a.k.a. California 55) was tabbed by motorists for a variety of reasons. Some hate its car-pool lanes. Others despise the bottleneck created by its transition lanes to the Santa Ana Freeway.

And some just loath this major north-south route for its unpredictable nature, especially in recent months as Caltrans work crews toil in an effort to upgrade various features of the freeway.

Here are what Orange County motorists had to say about the 55 and other local routes they consider to be freeways from hell.

Dear Street Smart:

What an opportunity! Without a doubt, the (alleged) freeway that I loathe the most is the Costa Mesa Freeway (55). I will avoid using it at all times, unless there is some compelling reason not to.

Traffic is almost always in excess of the roadway’s capacity to handle it. No matter whether one is traveling north or south, traffic seems to slow and often to stop, for no apparent reason other than just too many vehicles. There are several hills and dips where traffic slows down no matter what time of day.

And then there’s the I-5 interchange; a true nightmare any time of day or night. Drivers in the fast lanes wait until the last minute to cross three or four lanes of traffic to exit to the I-5, without regard for those around them. Drivers entering from the I-5 are hellbent to dash from the entry lanes to the far left lanes in exactly the same manner (the same drivers, perhaps?). You almost want to just close your eyes and keep going, so as not to see it.

On top of that, there’s the diamond lanes; it’s bad enough to be crawling along at non-rush hour times, without having traffic in those lanes zooming by, all too often including vehicles carrying only one person. I could write a book on my negative feelings toward “car-pool” lanes, but suffice it to say that the law does not really restrict their use to genuine car-poolers and the number of individuals using them never fails to amaze and infuriate me.

On that subject, I have witnessed a terribly dangerous maneuver on several occasions: drivers stopped in the “fast” lane turning into the car-pool lane from a dead stop, with 55 to 65 m.p.h. traffic approaching from behind! I hope I never see, or even read about, what will happen when one of them misjudges the speed and distance of the approaching traffic.

George P. Bienstadt

Huntington Beach

SS: It sounds like you know the 55 well, especially for someone who avoids it at all costs. Caltrans is currently working to improve several parts of the roadway you’ve complained about, but one factor that can’t be changed is human behavior. Unfortunately, those daredevils who dash across traffic and cheat in the car-pool lane will probably always be there.

Dear Street Smart:

This letter must be short or I could go on and on about the Riverside (91) Freeway.

The main frustration is to see so much space between the present lanes that could be converted into traffic lanes or “rapid transit” service lines.

How could “planners” hope to develop so many homes in the Riverside County area with only one artery of traffic to service it? Alternate routes are available in every other commute area in the greater Los Angeles area except the Orange County area. If you want to travel east out of the county, the only way is up the river canyon. I feel it is more heavily traveled than the Ventura Freeway upon which I once commuted.

Sand and gravel trucks sandblasting your auto paint and windshields, cargo carriers of all sizes and loads clog this freeway to the point of gridlock on a twice-daily basis for hours longer than the normal commuter rush hour periods. Since it is the only way out of the county, commuters clog the streets leading in that direction for as far as possible, making it difficult for residents to use the local streets in Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills.

Completing La Palma on the north side of the river and Santa Ana Canyon Boulevard on the south side of the freeway into wide boulevards or “mini-highways” could be of great help.

The commuter mess points a finger directly at the method of turning it over to a group to study. The problem has been studied to death and nothing results. Some firm action in the direction of roadway construction must be taken.

More could be written. I’m sure you’ll get tons of acidic mail on this subject, the one great frustration of living in Southern California.

Glen A. Lintner

Yorba Linda

SS: Your complaints reflect those of many frustrated motorists who struggle each day to drive into central Orange County from the northeast. No new freeways are on the horizon to ease that plight, but local planners are eager to develop a commuter rail service that would roughly parallel the 91 from Riverside then skirt down the 55. Whether car-loving Southern Californians would use it is another question.

Dear Street Smart:

Regarding the Freeway From Hell survey: Nice choices. Why include the 133 (world’s shortest freeway) or the 73 (The Rich Guy Expressway)? All the rest of them really meet the necessary criteria for hideousness.

Although there are very good reasons why the 405, 91, 55, 57 and the 22 also deserve a vote, my vote goes to that all-time, fave-rave, blue-collar, blood-spilling nightmare, the 5. Why? A) It’s the only major north-south artery. B) A jam on the 5 jams everything else. C) It’s ugly and getting uglier. D) I personally experience this five to six days a week. E) Caltrans is “fixing” it.

I drive from Anaheim to Laguna Hills five to six days a week. In 1969, it took me 22 minutes at rush hour. Now, at the time of lowest traffic, it takes 45 minutes. At “rush hour” (which these days is like a four-hour period) it takes an hour and 15 minutes.

This morning, Monday, Oct. 9, the traffic was amazingly light as I reached the junction of the 5 and the 22. There was no snarl, no red lights on parade. Why? Because there was a major wreck on the 22 and the transitions were blocked. I had a great drive for once, at the cost of other drivers being injured and put at the mercy of the California State Insurance Commission and because of a lot of other poor clowns parked on the 22.

The freeways are all jammed beyond recovery, OCTD (Orange County Transit District) is a poor joke, no one will fund light rail in O.C., nobody will car-pool and still the developers build, build, build without any regard or responsibility to the problems they cause, not only in traffic but in pollution, sewage, water and energy.

Burn it down and start all over again!

Greg Crow

Anaheim

SS: You certainly don’t mince words, Mr. Crow. And you are not alone. Several freeway loathers griped about the lack of light-rail to ease freeway congestion (authorities hope the November half-cent sales tax vote will pump funds into such rail programs). But some of the readers who responded feel the real solution is in improving the existing highways and opening up the car-pool lanes to general-use traffic.

Next: Send us nominations for the worst street name in Orange County and say why you hate it. Is there a Stinker Street or Ugh Way out there? Let’s hear the worst of the worst and, if you know, how they got that way. Also, we’ll share more letters from motorists about the freeways they love to hate.

Street Smart appears Mondays in the Orange County section of The Times. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic, commuting and what makes it difficult to get around in Orange County. Letters will be published in upcoming columns. Please call (714) 966-5944 or write to Eric Bailey, c/o Street Smart, The Times Orange County, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626. Include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers.