COUNTYWIDE : 24-Hour Car-Pool Lanes Supported

A new study defends Orange County’s restrictions on car-pool lanes 24 hours a day instead of only during peak traffic hours, which some critics of the lanes favor.

The study, by the Orange County Transportation Authority staff, was ordered in March by OCTA Chairman Roger R. Stanton, who had labeled as “worthless” an earlier, $10,000 investigation by Al Gonseth, a New York-based consultant.

In that effort, Gonseth merely summed up car-pool lane operating characteristics from throughout the country. He failed to analyze Orange County’s lanes specifically and draw conclusions about what would happen if OCTA allowed all motorists to use the car-pool lanes during periods when traffic is not heavy.

The new report, to be presented at OCTA’s meeting Monday, says a telephone survey of other areas with car-pool lanes showed that many decisions to restrict the lanes to car pools only during certain hours were “political” and “not based on traffic patterns. . . .”

Orange County, the report concludes, should retain 24-hour restrictions, because car-pool lanes here have “consistently high volumes during both the peak and off-peak (hours). . . . Orange County does not have the ‘empty-lane syndrome’ problems that other regions have had to address.”

Also, the report states that during low-congestion periods, the lanes aren’t needed, so there would be little or no benefit to opening them to everyone.

Drivers for Highway Safety, a small, grass-roots group opposed to car-pool lanes, is expected to challenge the findings. Members of the group, who charge that car-pool lanes aren’t as efficient as regular lanes, have accused OCTA officials of biasing such reports in the past.