Car-Pool Construction Picks Up Speed : * Opening of Orange Freeway Lanes Is Latest Welcome Sign of Less Congestion Ahead

The unclogging of Orange County, one of the state’s most congested areas, has begun in earnest with the passage of Measure M, the half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements. The measure has just cleared some bothersome legal hurdles, and now, the first project to be completed under the tax is due to open Friday. The project is the $25-million car-pool lanes on the Orange Freeway. It’s opening, in this time of cost overruns and routine delays, a full year ahead of schedule and millions of dollars under budget.

These lanes will add 20 miles of car-pooling to the 72 miles of freeway existing already on the Costa Mesa and San Diego freeways. Orange County has the distinction of being the car-pool capital of the state. These millions spent on car-pool lanes are well-spent, even though this is a costly way to achieve doubling up.

Indeed, car-pool lanes already are a boon to the commuters who use them as a way around the crunch of daily congestion. And nobody ever said that car-pool lanes alone are the solution to the transportation crisis. But with other incentives, they can go a way toward getting people to share rides. The fact that Orange County has managed to bring these lanes on line within the short time frame of the past six years is reason enough for celebration.

Such alternatives to driving solo are needed. By 2000, car-pool lanes will be available to commuters on almost all Orange County freeways. So, the choices will be there, and the congestion picture will brighten.

Speaking of easing congestion, the long-anticipated opening last week of the extension of Oso and Antonio parkways came as welcome news for South County residents. Commuters now have a third route from Rancho Santa Margarita to Interstate 5. This improvement will relieve traffic on Santa Margarita Parkway.

It’s all part of opening up circulation patterns, which is good news in Orange County.