San Diego Freeway Car-Pool Lane Draws Record Number of Drivers

While work on 10 miles of southbound car-pool lane on the San Diego Freeway is not expected to be completed until next week, the northbound commuter lane has gotten off to a fast start, California Department of Transportation officials said Tuesday.

After less than a week of operation, the northbound lane has attracted more cars during the peak morning commute hour than any new commuter lane in Orange County, authorities said.

The new 10-mile stretch of car-pool lanes, which extend from the Santa Ana Freeway to the Corona del Mar Freeway, links to a 14-mile segment completed last summer between the Corona del Mar and San Gabriel River freeways to form the longest continuous commuter system in the state.

Between 6:45 a.m. and 7:45 a.m., the lane drew more than 800 cars, about 200 more than were lured to the car-pool lanes on the Costa Mesa Freeway during its initial days of operation, said Joe El-Harake, Orange County commuter lanes coordinator for Caltrans. The new lane drew about 250 more cars than were attracted to the 14-mile segment on the San Diego Freeway when it opened last September, he said.