‘Tis the Season for Alternatives to Bristol Street

The nation may still be gripped in the throes of recession, but one economic indicator in Orange County still appears bullish: The freeway ramps leading to South Coast Plaza are jammed with traffic.

Unfortunately, the snarl at the notorious Bristol Street overpass--feeding the mega-mall’s main entrance--has been a regular part of recent holiday seasons. During the height of the shopping day, a queue of cars routinely forms at the off-ramps.

South Coast Plaza, of course, is not the only magnet for Christmas traffic jams. California Highway Patrol officials in recent days have reported lines of cars stretching at times out onto the freeway at some South County malls. At MainPlace in Santa Ana, the freeway ramps often jam up as shoppers and commuters vie for the road.

But such headaches pale compared to the Bristol Street mess.

“The Bristol ramps are a significant problem, particularly this time of year,” said William Morris, Costa Mesa’s director of public services. “They rank very high on our list of problems that need to be corrected. If you compared them to other traffic problems countywide, they’re among the most serious of deficiencies.”

Morris should know. He regularly drives out to the spot in his car, not only to do his own shopping but also to see how the Bristol Street interchange is performing. And he often doesn’t like what he sees.

The glitch, it seems, is not so much the crush of cars--an average of 65,000 a day plow along Bristol Street--as it is a poorly designed circulation system. The Bristol interchange is nearly a daily recipe for trouble, in particular at the southbound off-ramp from the San Diego Freeway.

Cars exiting the freeway must weave across traffic trying to swing onto the highway from Bristol Street. It’s a move that breeds caution in even the most steely nerved motorists. Brakes are applied. Pretty soon, traffic from the freeway and the street slows to a crawl. Then it stops. The line of idling vehicles begins to grow and grow, sometimes stretching all the way out onto the freeway.

Morris and other traffic experts say the problem could be fixed fairly simply: The southbound ramp needs to be altered so the exiting cars do not mix with drivers trying to get onto the freeway.

Plans call for the ramp to be rerouted so it never crosses under the Bristol Street overpass or merges with the lanes shooting motorists onto the freeway. Instead, it would swing off the freeway and link up with Bristol Street at a new intersection that would be created just north of Gisler Street--complete with signals and a couple of left-turn lanes for motorists eager to get to South Coast Plaza. A similar setup is in use just up the freeway at Harbor Boulevard--and it works just fine.

“We want to do it once, do it right and have it that way for the next 50 years,” Morris said.

Now the bad news. The project is just now beginning to move through the labyrinthine environmental review and planning process. In addition, California Department of Transportation officials still have not endorsed the idea. Morris said he does not expect work to begin for another two years, although he suspects the time frame can be shrunk a bit with some effort.

“I just don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up,” Morris said. “We’ll try to push it through sooner, but there are so many procedures it has to go through, so many plan checks.”

Another problem could be money. Morris said his city will probably try to get discretionary money for the project from Measure M, the transportation sales tax approved by county voters in 1990. He thinks that the Bristol ramp work would fare well in the competition for dollars.

But it is still uncertain whether Measure M dollars, which are being generated by a new half-cent sales tax, will even be around in a few more months. A coalition of Measure M opponents have challenged the tax initiative in court, and transportation officials across the county are worried that it might be scuttled.

Meantime, Morris has a suggestion or two that do not cost a penny and will help motorists avoid the mess at the Bristol Street off-ramps:

* Try using Fairview Road, especially motorists headed north on the freeway. The ramps are almost always traffic-free and motorists can zip north on Fairview and turn right onto South Coast Drive, which runs into South Coast Plaza and by the Crystal Court shopping center.

“If they get off at Fairview during the holiday season, I guarantee they’ll be into a parking space sooner than if they take the Bristol off-ramp,” Morris said.

* For drivers headed south on the San Diego Freeway, try taking the Corona del Mar Freeway to the Bear Street exit. Head north on Bear Street, which runs right between Crystal Court and South Coast Plaza. The Bear Street route is also the best entrance to the mall for motorists coming north on the Corona del Mar Freeway from Newport Beach.