EARTHQUAKE: THE LONG ROAD BACK : A Diamond in the Rough : Transportation: Nearly two decades ago, car-pool lanes were unpopular. But after the temblor, Caltrans is trying them again on the Santa Monica Freeway.

When transportation officials opened car-pool lanes on the crippled Santa Monica Freeway this week, their decision awakened a ghost seemingly laid to rest nearly two decades ago.

In an experiment turned public relations fiasco, transportation officials in 1976 converted two fast lanes on the jammed freeway into diamond lanes--meaning they were reserved for buses and car-pools--between Santa Monica and Downtown Los Angeles.

Traffic eased somewhat, but the project was so unpopular that motorists staged protests, lawsuits were filed and a federal judge ordered that the experiment be dropped after just 21 weeks.

Caltrans, the state transportation agency, was so battered by the experience that it changed the name for such lanes to HOV (high-occupancy vehicle) lanes and pledged to leave the Santa Monica Freeway alone.

Until this week.

“It isn’t everyday that we have an earthquake,” said Charles J. O’Connell, deputy district director at Caltrans, which reversed its position after last week’s temblor and opened six miles of HOV lanes Monday.

“The question is: Is the public willing to accept that kind of measure during an emergency situation? I think they are,” he said. “We would hope they are.”

A lot has changed in Los Angeles in the intervening 18 years, but O’Connell and other transportation officials opted for the car-pool lanes only after lengthy discussions, and then with a high degree of trepidation. Caltrans remains so skittish about the lanes that it rejected suggestions to extend them the entire length of the freeway, opting to limit them to stretches near earthquake damage.

“There is still a bitter taste in a lot of people’s mouths,” said Caltrans spokesman Russ Snyder. “History looks back and says it was a failure and didn’t work.”

Los Angeles Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who helped sink the 1976 experiment, supported the installation of the lanes this time, saying the emergency situation warranted it. But Yaroslavsky said Caltrans will have to sell him and other Los Angeles commuters on the idea over the next few months if it intends to make the lanes permanent, particularly because that would mean removing two lanes from the overall traffic flow.

“A lot will depend on how it works,” Yaroslavsky said. “If it works well, people like me could be persuaded. If it doesn’t work, we have to be adult enough to admit it.”

Initial reports show that the lanes--one in each direction--are barely being used by commuters. A Caltrans count shortly after 7 a.m. found a single vehicle using the car-pool lane during a five-minute period--while 40 vehicles passed in other lanes. Half an hour later, after rush hour picked up, officials recorded two cars using the special lane during a one-minute period--while 25 cars passed in the go-it-alone lanes.

Caltrans blamed the low use on ignorance of the new lanes and the availability to commuters of other routes away from the freeway.

But some transportation officials predicted that the lanes will never catch on with Santa Monica Freeway drivers, who continue to resist efforts to drive in car-pools--and remain a different breed from most freeway commuters in Los Angeles.

“Beach people will not car-pool,” said one traffic technician. “They can’t share a surfboard.”

Attorney Eric Julber, whose lawsuit in 1976 was instrumental in killing the diamond lanes, said he was uncertain whether the lanes would catch on with commuters this time.

“I have been away from Los Angeles for several years,” he said from his new home in Northern California. “Such problems are far from my mind.”