Toting Up Pluses and Minuses, Ins and Outs of Car-Pool Lanes

Your Sept. 14 editorial “All in the Car Pool” correctly points out the lack of leadership of the Orange County Transportation Commission. The “ad nauseam” studies referred to show factually that the car-pool lanes increase accidents and decrease freeway capacity over what would be the case if the lanes were open to all--all the time.

The studies also show factually that the lanes are a major source of pollution since the required congestion of the general-purpose lanes, to create an incentive for car-pooling, results in two to three times the pollution as would be the case with the free flow we could have if the car-pool lanes were opened to all, all the time.

Just how much time does car-pooling take to catch on? Three independent studies done as long as three years since the car-pool lanes opened on the Costa Mesa Freeway failed to find any significant increase in the proportion of people car-pooling. One even showed a smaller number of people car-pooling on the Costa Mesa Freeway than the county average on freeways without car-pool lanes. Some incentive!

If The Times believed documented fact instead of unsubstantiated opinion, you would have to join us “malcontents.” Welcome aboard!

LESTER P. BERRIMAN

Irvine