This Time, It’s Going to Work! : I-10 car-pool lanes were reviled in 1976, but now we have to try harder

Will Los Angeles reinvent itself? Does this city truly have a brighter future in the wake of the many tragedies that have rocked it? A future with less congestion and smog? The first inklings may be coming from, no surprise, our freeway system, long the butt of too many bad jokes and far too much L.A.-bashing.

Discussions are still in the early stages but U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena, Mayor Richard Riordan and other city and state officials are talking about making permanent the temporary car-pool lane along the Santa Monica Freeway. The final decision, which will follow formal community surveys and environmental impact studies, is up to Caltrans, the state transportation agency. We think it’s a good idea that could spark many other positive changes.

After the recent earthquake, transportation officials opened emergency car-pool lanes that give car-poolers an advantage in bypassing damaged areas on the Santa Monica Freeway and the Golden State-Antelope Valley freeway interchange.

For years, car-pool lanes have almost been a local epithet. In 1976, Caltrans unveiled a short-lived diamond lane along the Santa Monica Freeway for buses and vehicles carrying at least three people. The lane was created from one of the freeway’s existing lanes. And even though traffic flowed smoothly in that lane, solo drivers in other lanes crept along--and cursed. The infamous experiment lasted only 21 weeks and left a bitter legacy.

But the new, makeshift car-pool lanes--requiring two, not three, occupants per vehicle--are beginning to pry some solo drivers out of their cars. After being in place for the months of freeway reconstruction they could, in combination with a new push on telecommuting, for example, change life here for the better.