‘Diamond Lanes’ Are Back : Prop. 111 Would Fund More Special-Use Freeway Lanes

Fourteen years after a disastrous experiment on Los Angeles’ Westside, “Diamond Lanes” are winning converts among California’s hard-to-please motorists. Today, as many weekday commuters creep along jammed freeways, they look with envy on the buses, vans and car pools zipping along in special High Occupancy Vehicle lanes set aside just for them. They may not know about, or remember, the controversy that erupted in 1976 over the first Diamond Lane.

One HOV lane, painted with white diamonds, was set aside on the busy Santa Monica Freeway for the exclusive use of vehicles carrying at least three persons. It was a noble experiment: Encourage motorists to commute together and therefore reduce congestion, cut smog and save money. But it flopped. The fatal flaw was that the Diamond Lane was not a new one, but an existing lane removed from general traffic flow. The result was an almost-empty Diamond Lane, including a few cheaters, and incredible traffic tie-ups in the lanes left to everyone else. The experiment lasted only five miserable months.

Today, as regular commuters on the San Bernardino, the Riverside and the Costa Mesa freeways know--and also now on the San Diego Freeway in Orange County--the diamonds are back and working quite well. But the state’s transportation finance crisis has brought a halt to new HOV lane construction even on the Century Freeway (Interestate 105) that finally is nearing completion. That is another important reason for area voters to support Proposition 111, the gas-tax measure on the June 5 primary election ballot.

Critics claim that increasing freeway capacity only generates more traffic and congestion. But that argument ignores the growth that is occurring anyway. It fails to credit the benefits of the newly built HOV lanes, which are now open to vehicles with two or more persons. And Caltrans officials say it is likely that any more lanes added to existing freeways in urban Southern California will be for car poolers only. These new lanes not only will help ease congestion, but also will reduce air pollution because idling vehicles generate more pollutants than moving ones. In fact, a major part of the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s tough new control program requires the development of car and van pools so that fewer workers will be commuting by themselves.

Construction of new HOV lanes can be a significant incentive for motorists to abandon their independence behind the wheel and join a pool. Carolyn DeVinny, a private transportation consultant, said that many of the drivers she works with “would like to go zipping along in that lane.” If Proposition 111 passes, the new gasoline-tax revenue--resulting from a doubling of the 9-cent-per-gallon fuel levy over the next five years--would finance more than $500 million worth of HOV lane construction in Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange counties.

Projects that are likely to get assistance include an extension of the El Monte Busway along Interstate 10 east of downtown Los Angeles, and HOV lanes on these freeways: the 60, the 118 and the 405--and probably the 91 and the 210--in Los Angeles County; the 5 and 15 in San Diego County, and the 57 in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The biggest project of all would be $186 million in HOV lane construction along the entire length of Interstate 405 in Los Angeles County, from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach.

Do HOV lanes work? Yes, indeed. Caltrans officials say that the El Monte lane on the San Bernardino Freeway carries three times as many people as each of the regular lanes. HOV lanes get cars off the road, save fuel, cut smog and deliver rested workers to their jobs. That’s how to get Californians’ tax dollars really working for them.