EARTHQUAKE / THE ROAD TO RECOVERY : Span Retrofitting, Car-Pool Lanes Get a Push : Traffic: Permanent corridors are urged for the Santa Monica Freeway, depriving solo drivers of one lane in each direction.

Car-pool lanes on the Santa Monica Freeway--a politically odious notion revived only as an emergency, post-earthquake measure--could someday become permanent.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena, Mayor Richard Riordan and other city officials would like to see creation of permanent car-pool lanes on the nation’s busiest freeway--an action that would mean depriving solo motorists of one lane in each direction.

When Caltrans officials introduced the notorious diamond lanes 18 years ago, the resulting outcry ensured that they--and their counterparts across the nation--added new lanes whenever they created car-pool lanes. Never again, officials had vowed, would they commandeer lanes. But the earthquake, some say, changed all the normal equations of today’s commute.

“Now, the people of Southern California . . . are much more focused on their transportation, they realize it is a fragile system and that we have to make better use of it,” Pena said. “This is almost 20 years later--the congestion in the L.A. area is now at record levels, people are much more frustrated about delays, congestion and pollution.”

Today, discussions are still in the early stages. Ultimately, Caltrans officials would make the decision after surveying the affected communities and studying the environmental impact on the area--which could take up to 18 months.

In recent weeks, Pena and city officials have conducted a quiet campaign to establish permanent car-pool lanes. Mostly, the topic has been discussed behind closed office doors. But slowly, the idea has gained momentum and officials have begun more open talks. Tom Connor, assistant general manager of the city Department of Transportation, said the agency supports installing permanent car-pool lanes, “provided the usage grows to a point where it’s justified.”

To make car-pool lanes more palatable to commuters, the plan under discussion today for the Santa Monica Freeway would require a minimum of two passengers, rather than the three-person minimum required in 1976.

Caltrans officials--still smarting from the whipping they took the last time around--are steering clear of the topic, fearing the ensuing flap would doom its entire car-pool program, which would eventually create about 400 miles of car-pool lanes in Southern California. This network of car-pool lanes would be created by adding lanes to freeways.

“I feel so strongly about the high occupancy vehicle system, that I am not willing to gamble with it,” said Jerry Baxter, director of the local Caltrans district. “This community has to feel comfortable with (car-pool) lanes; if the (political leaders) insist that I take a lane away, I’ll do it. But I don’t think this is the time to experiment--I would hate to think of losing the whole program over a test like that.”

Eighteen years ago, Caltrans reserved the fast lane in each direction on the Santa Monica Freeway for buses and vehicles carrying at least three people. Although traffic flowed more smoothly, the experiment met a swift and painful end--generating so many lawsuits and outraged protests that it was ordered shut by a federal judge after 21 weeks.

Nor was that the only defeat of car-pool lanes. After becoming aware of community opposition, Caltrans decided six years ago to reject a proposed car-pool lane on the Ventura Freeway. The decision cost the agency federal funding, and meant the state had to pay the full $22 million to open additional mixed-flow lanes.

Today, officials predict that the biggest hurdle to establishing permanent car-pool lanes on the Santa Monica will be the same as it was years ago--officials would have to take away a general-use lane because the freeway is not wide enough to accommodate an additional lane.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who is likely to become a vocal opponent, blasted the idea of converting the Santa Monica Freeway lanes, said an aide, Habib Balian. “In the past, this was an absolute failure. Taking away the lane really didn’t help the flow.”

Citing longtime, widespread resistance, some experts say they don’t believe officials--even with Pena’s help--will succeed in establishing permanent car-pool lanes on the Santa Monica Freeway.

“Bureaucrats have long memories; they are not about to go out on a limb again. While the public may be ready, I don’t think transportation officials and politicians are ready,” said Jim Sims, president of Commuter Transportation Services. “Transportation officials think (car-pool lanes) are a good idea but they are gun-shy. Pena doesn’t have to live here.”

While acknowledging that he would face a potentially heated battle, Riordan said he was considering several options to help ease the flow of traffic, including installing permanent car-pool lanes on the Santa Monica Freeway and converting Pico and Olympic Boulevards into one-way thoroughfares.

“It’s one of these things with a lot of political overtones. But these types of solutions are worth a lot of effort on my part,” Riordan said. “The Santa Monica would be the most natural.”

After the earthquake downed portions of six freeways, transportation officials opened two emergency car-pool lanes, bypassing damaged areas on the Santa Monica Freeway and the Golden State-Antelope Valley freeway interchange. But remembering the bitter legacy of the diamond lane, Caltrans officials balked at installing car-pool lanes the entire length of the Santa Monica. Instead, they set up two-mile lanes so car-pool drivers faced shorter detours on a section of the freeway.

At its best, the westbound Santa Monica car-pool lane has drawn about 1,250 cars in one peak hour; eastbound, 720. By contrast, drivers began car-pooling immediately on the Antelope Valley, near the I-5/California 14 interchange, where traffic has delayed drivers by as much as two hours. As many as 1,800 multi-passenger cars take the Antelope Valley car-pool lane in one peak hour.

“We never carried that much before. Our eyes almost popped out,” said Charles J. O’Connell, deputy district director at Caltrans. “But if ever there was a time to car-pool, it is now.”