And Don’t Leave the Driving to Us : Leadership is needed to boost car-pool-lane idea

Never has there been so much big talk about reinventing Los Angeles as has been heard in the wake of successive natural and man-made catastrophes. But in this land of dreams and dreamers, talk of change flows faster than storm runoff down the Los Angeles River. Cyber schools? Sure. The virtual workplace? Why not. Smart freeways? Of course.

Really?

What about taking a first step toward a better future by making permanent the temporary car-pool lane along stretches of the Santa Monica Freeway? Alas, this small but critical step apparently calls for political courage. Anybody up to it?

Days after the Northridge earthquake, Caltrans, the state transportation agency, constructed a series of commuter detours around broken parts of the Santa Monica Freeway. Caltrans crews worked with speed and imagination in getting this freeway, the nation’s busiest, back into operation. Key to this jury-rigged system of alternative routes are two lanes that reward car-poolers with a quicker and much more direct detour around the freeway breaks. The eastbound and westbound lanes approaching the breaks near La Cienega Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue allow car-poolers to stay on the freeway one exit farther than those driving alone and reroute them back one entrance sooner.

In a region where transportation planners and commuters are still haunted by the Ghost of Diamond Lanes Past, one would have predicted a huge outcry against such bold “social engineering” by state bureaucrats. Instead, the I-10 car-pool lanes appear to be a success. An estimated 1,300 cars use the lanes hourly during peak periods. Given that those cars must carry at least two people, the lanes are now moving more people each hour than did unrestricted lanes on the same freeway before the quake. Some car-poolers report that their commute is faster now than it was before the Jan. 17 temblor. And the lanes have done more to entice Angelenos out of their solo driving habits than all the previous campaigns of exhortation by transportation officials.

Mayor Richard Riordan and U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena have expressed interest in extending these lanes and making them permanent features of the reconstructed I-10. But as repairs move forward, ahead of schedule, far too little has been done to begin that process. In fact, when this freeway returns to normal--this is expected by May--the car-pool lane could disappear. If that happens because state transportation leaders, City Council members or the mayor lacked the resolve to formally endorse this notion, it will be a sorry measure of the commitment to a brighter future in this now-beleaguered region of big dreams. Drive we must, but let’s car-pool, and be rewarded for it, as much as we can.