IRVINE : Car-Pool Backers, Protesters Face Off

A protest group angry about the delayed opening of car-pool lanes on the San Diego Freeway, and another group being blamed for the delay, met Monday in a showdown demonstration at a pedestrian overpass in Irvine.

But their standoff was cut short when a California Highway Patrol car pulled into the diamond lane below and told the protesters that they were disrupting traffic and would have to disperse.

The first group, made up of corporate car-pool advocates, held up a sign that read: “Orange County employers say: Open the car-pool lanes.”

They were transportation coordinators from AVCO Financial Services, McDonnell Douglas Space Systems, Burlington Air Express and others. They said they represent about 13,000 employees who are upset about the delayed opening of 14 miles of car-pool lanes on the northbound and southbound 405 Freeway between the Santa Ana and Corona del Mar freeways.

Janet Newton, transportation coordinator for McDonnell Douglas Space Systems, said that about 2,000 of the company’s 8,400 employees participate in car pools or van pools, or use an alternative form of transportation.

“We get calls from our employees daily saying, ‘When are they going to open the lanes?’ ” Newton said. Opening the car-pool lanes could trim commute times by about half an hour for some employees, she said.

At the overpass at Yale Avenue and Michelson Drive, the car-pool advocates met an eight-person counterprotest organized by Drivers for Highway Safety, the group that the transportation coordinators blame for the delays because of a lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court in Santa Ana, contends that Caltrans did not conduct the state-required studies to test the diamond lane’s effect on “safety, congestion and highway capacity” before beginning construction, said Bill Ward, DHS co-chairman. DHS also contends that car-pool lanes increase accident rates and do not alleviate traffic congestion.

But Albert Miranda, Caltrans spokesman, said that all necessary studies had been conducted for the new diamond lanes and the results were included in a preliminary environmental impact report filed before construction began. Miranda added that the DHS suit, which goes to court April 19, has not delayed the lanes’ opening.

In fact, Miranda said the northbound car-pool lane on the 405 could open as early as this Friday. The southbound lane should open in late April.