Opening Car-Pool Lanes to All Poses a Timing Problem

Dear Street Smart:

My wife and I travel often from Costa Mesa to Palm Desert. Because of the heavy traffic on the Costa Mesa and Riverside freeways, we travel only between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. We of course appreciate, and use, the car-pool lane.

Wouldn’t it be a better use of our freeways to allow open use of car-pool lanes on Saturday and Sunday and at other times that are not commuter or peak traffic periods? This way, the traffic would be spread out over the entire roadway and make easier and safer driving for all.

I know Caltrans will say people will not observe the correct time periods, but ticketing would curtail this problem, as it presently does for stopping single-occupant cars from using car-pool lanes. Or perhaps the use of red and green lights designating accessibility would be an answer.

David V. Schweitzer

Costa Mesa

The system you propose already exists in Caltrans’ District 4, which includes San Francisco and San Jose. There, all drivers can use car-pool lanes during off-peak traffic hours.

But the idea has been considered and rejected by traffic engineers in Orange County, in part because traffic congestion on this county’s freeways hardly ever lets up, said Joe El Harake , car-pool lane coordinator for Caltrans here.

Three years ago, the Orange County Transportation Authority and Caltrans studied the feasibility of opening the lanes to everyone for parts of the day. They found that the county’s freeways with car-pool lanes, the San Diego, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa and Orange, are congested from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

When freeways are crowded, Harake said, it is important to give car-poolers an advantage to encourage ride-sharing. The growth of car-pooling in Orange County, where about 81,000 vehicles use the special lanes each day, is attributed in large part to this incentive, he said.

And during the few hours when freeway traffic is light in Orange County, he said, there is no need to open an additional lane for general traffic.

Harake said Caltrans also doesn’t want to set car-pool hours that differ from freeway to freeway within the county or to adopt a policy that conflicts with other regions with car-pool lanes.

“We don’t want the motorists to get confused,” he said.

Dear Street Smart:

Please tell me if there are any plans for a traffic signal at Avenida de las Banderas and Antonio Parkway. With increasing development and the opening of the southern extension of the toll road that exits at Antonio, the traffic on Antonio has greatly increased.

Since traffic lights are few and far between on Antonio, this stretch of road has become a speedway. With six lanes of speeding traffic on Antonio and a school being built at the intersection of Antonio and Avenida de las Banderas, the intersection is not safe.

Moreover, drivers on Antonio aren’t making full stops at the intersection (despite a stop sign there) and others are making U-turns. As soon as drivers are halfway through the intersection, they open throttle. This situation is an accident waiting to happen.

Also, what is the speed limit on Antonio from Rancho Santa Margarita to Tijerras Creek? The only visible sign says 55 m.p.h. between Tijerras Creek and Oso.

Karen Horwitz

Rancho Santa Margarita

Dear Street Smart:

We need your help before there is a tragic accident on the corner of Via Verde and Antonio. We live in Rancho Santa Margarita and going south on Via Verde to make a left turn onto Antonio in the morning or afternoon is like taking your life into your hands. Loral Aeronutronic’s offices are nearby and more than 500 people in speeding cars go down Antonio. There is a curve before Via Verde with bushes in the parkway and you cannot see the speeding oncoming traffic. All day is difficult, but not as bad as early morning or late afternoon. Even a boulevard stop would be a big help.

Mrs. Florence Garwin

Rancho Santa Margarita

County traffic engineer Ignacio Ochoa conceded that his staff is hard-pressed to keep pace with the growth of traffic on Antonio Parkway since the recent extension of the Foothill Corridor to which Antonio leads.

Moreover, he said, Antonio and side streets that feed it are filling with cars from a new spurt of home construction in the area.

In response to an earlier request for a traffic light at the intersection of Via Verde and Antonio, Ochoa said, the county’s traffic committee, representing law enforcement, school districts, the California Department of Transportation and the Automobile Club of Southern California, examined the situation.

The committee decided it was premature to place a signal at that intersection, Ochoa said, because there aren’t as yet enough cars using Via Verde to make it reasonable to require the heavy traffic on Antonio to stop for them. They rejected a boulevard stop for the same reason.

However, the committee also concluded that the overgrown bushes and flowers on that portion of the Antonio median are obstructing the view of people turning onto Antonio from Via Verde. The shrubs will be out within two weeks, Ochoa said, and the median probably will be replanted with something less obtrusive.

Just a quarter mile to the north, Antonio Parkway intersects with Avenida de la Banderas. Referring to a sheet of computerized data that county engineers use to plan traffic signals, Ochoa said it was easy to understand why there is no signal at that intersection: Only 311 cars daily use Avenida de la Banderas, the document said.

But then Ochoa became puzzled. If traffic was so light, why had Avenida la Banderas been constructed as a four-lane arterial highway?

After visiting the intersection, Ochoa realized a typographical error had been made on his planning spread sheet. A total of 7,000 cars--not 311 cars--use Avenida de la Banderas daily.

Prompted by this revelation and concern for children who will be attending a parochial school under construction, Ochoa said he has directed his staff to design a signal for the intersection. He said he hopes it will be installed by the fall.

Regarding speeding on Antonio Parkway, Ochoa said, the only stretch where the speed limit is less than the maximum 55 m.p.h. is “in town,” defined as between Avenida de las Flores and Cota de Caza Drive, where the posted limit is 45 m.p.h.

Ochoa said he isn’t surprised the parkway gets speeders.

“Any time you have a road with a 55 m.p.h. speed, you are going to have a certain segment of the population, typically 10% to 15% of the motorists, who will drive faster,” he said.