Full Speed Ahead

It’s the year 2006 and you need to get to work.

You hop into your car in rural southeast Orange County, take the Foothill Transportation Corridor north to the new Eastern Transportation Corridor, then drive west to the recently opened Tustin Transportation Center. There you park and take a Metrolink train all the way into downtown Los Angeles.

Total time, according to planners: about 80 minutes for a commute which, using roads available today, would take 95 minutes by car and train on a good day or two hours by car alone.

And don’t even think about trying it in the year 2006 without the new roads, they say.

Wishful thinking?

To planners at the California Department of Transportation and the Orange County Transportation Authority, it is as real as the crews now working on road improvements countywide which, they say, will someday constitute one of the most advanced and “holistic” transportation systems in the country, capable of moving unprecedented numbers of people.

“What we will have is a transportation system that’s interconnected,” said Albert Miranda, a Caltrans spokesman. “You will no longer have just busways or trains or freeways independent of each other; all of them will be interlinked to better move people in what will be a whole transportation system for Orange County.”

Transportation planners first recognized the need for a better system in the early 1980s, when they began predicting the county’s population would increase from its current 2.5 million to about 3 million by the year 2010.

During the same period, they say, the number of cars using Orange County freeways is expected to increase by about 30%, from 7.1 million annually to about 9.2 million.

To help cope with the problem, Orange County voters in 1990 approved Measure M, a half-cent sales tax expected to generate $3.1 billion for transportation improvements well into the next century.

Many of the planned improvements, officials say, involve the Santa Ana Freeway, the “Main Street” of Orange County’s transportation system, near which half the county’s residents and two-thirds of its jobs are located.

“Most people in Orange County rely on their cars,” said Stan Oftelie, chief executive officer of the OCTA. “The backbone of the transportation system is the freeways, and that’s our No. 1 priority.”

Among the freeway improvements planned, completed or underway, according to Miranda, are increases in the number of general-use lanes and modifications to freeways aimed at improving the flow of traffic.

But planners also decided that freeway congestion could be further reduced if more people shared their cars. So they planned a number of projects to increase the county’s carpool lanes from 133 miles to 400. They also designed various connectors and drop ramps aimed at allowing car-poolers to stay in those lanes for relatively long distances without having to cross other lanes.

And they plan to add offramps at major shopping centers, civic centers, entertainment complexes and, most importantly, transportation centers to decrease congestion and encourage people to leave their cars.

“We’re designing the system to provide easier access to major traffic generators, both public and private,” Miranda said. “We’re also laying it out so that all these different modes of transportation--rail, bus and car--will feed off each other rather than being in outlying areas.”

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Not everyone is impressed, however.

Members of Drivers for Highway Safety, a group that has been arguing against carpool lanes for years, contend that all the money is being spent in the least effective way.

“The whole idea is to get people out of their cars into socialized transportation, and it isn’t working,” said Bill Ward, the group’s chairman. “They are trying to make passengers out of drivers, but Americans have never been passengers. This is New Age transportation and it’s all balderdash driven by the need to feel good, sound good and talk good. It’s never worked and it never will.”

Instead of building new carpool lanes and encouraging people to take the train, Ward said, state and county officials ought to spend more money simply building better roads.

The effort “should go into making the driver’s job easier,” Ward said. “A carpool lane is just about half as effective as a mixed-flow lane.”

Wayne King, a founding member of the group, agrees.

“This will get an insignificant number of people off the road,” he said of the planned improvements.

Transportation planners, however, remain optimistic that some drivers will choose alternatives.

Under the system of the future, Miranda said, “people will have more options and there will be a lot less congestion. With the current improvements through the year 2006, we are still playing catch-up. After that it will be a matter of keeping pace.”

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Further Down the Road

Three major freeway projects remain unfunded although they are planned. And the county’s three toll roads are in stages ranging from one open section to one portion still under environmental review. The details:

On the Santa Ana Freeway

Riverside Freeway to San Gabriel River Freeway

* Changes: One carpool lane in each direction

* Cost: $7 million, right of way; $119 million, construction

* Projected start/finish: 2003/2006

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On the Costa Mesa Freeway

Garden Grove Freeway to Riverside Freeway

* Change: Still being designed

* Cost: Approximately $107 million in right of way and construction

* Projected start/finish: 1998/2001

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On the San Diego Freeway

Corona del Mar Freeway Interchange

* Changes: One more regular lane and one carpool lane to the Corona del Mar Freeway between Birch Street and the San Diego Freeway; connector between northbound Corona del Mar and Costa Mesa freeways; improvements between Bear and Euclid streets

* Cost: Approximately $57 million in right of way and construction

* Projected start/finish: Unknown

TOLL ROADS

San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor

* Laguna Canyon Road to Jamboree Road: Opens Dec. 10

* Laguna Canyon Road to Greenfield Drive, Laguna Hills: Opens July 24

* Greenfield southbound to Santa Ana Freeway: Opens July 24

* Santa Ana Freeway northbound to Greenfield: Opens Dec. 10

Eastern Transportation Corridor

* Opens in 1999

Foothill Transportation Corridor

* Portola Parkway to Antonio Parkway: Open

* Portola Parkway to Eastern Transportation Corridor: Opens 1999

* Antonio Parkway to Oso Parkway: Opens this summer

* Oso Parkway to San Clemente: Under environmental review

Sources: Orange County Transportation Authority, Transportation Corridor Agencies

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Road Futures

Orange County’s vast array of freeway improvements continue, with completion dates ranging from later this year to 2003. Here’s a look at the projects, most of which are underway. Completion dates are projections:

On the Santa Ana Freeway

1. San Diego Freeway to Pacific Coast Highway

Changes: One regular and one carpool lane in each direction

Cost: $1 million, right of way; $38 million, construction

Start/completion: Underway/Late 1996

2. I-5 Interchange (El Toro Y)

Changes: Two carpool lanes in each direction south of interchange to connect with carpool lanes north of interchange on Santa Ana and San Diego freeways; direct carpool connection between the two freeways; collector/distributor roads; Bake Parkway overcrossing/interchange

Cost: $33 million, right of way; $62 million, construction

Start/completion: Underway/Late 1996

3. Costa Mesa Freeway to Santa Ana/Garden Grove/Orange freeway interchange

Changes: Carpool connector at Santa Ana and Costa Mesa interchange and at Santa Ana and Orange interchange; two regular lanes in each direction, one carpool lane; direct carpool access drop ramps and Grand Avenue and Main Street

Cost: $165.2 million, right of way; $318.5 million, construction

Start/completion: Just finished

4. Garden Grove Freeway to Riverside Freeway

Changes: One regular and carpool lane in each direction; direct carpool access drop ramps at Gene Autry Way (both directions), Freedman Way (northbound) and West Street (southbound); widen overpasses and improve city street interchanges; carpool connector at Riverside Freeway interchange

Cost: $600 million, right of way; $480 million, construction

Start/completion: December/Late 2000

On the Riverside Freeway

5. Santa Ana Freeway to L.A. County line

Changes: One carpool lane in each direction

Cost: $22 million, construction

Start/completion: 1997/mid-1999

6. Orange Freeway Interchange

Changes: Carpool freeway-to-freeway connector

Cost: $9 million, right of way; $75 million, construction

Start/completion: 1997/late 1999

7. Santa Ana Freeway to Orange Freeway

Changes: One carpool lane in each direction; auxiliary lanes

Cost: $4 million, right of way; $71 million, construction

Start/completion: 1997/late 1999

On the Costa Mesa Freeway

8. 17th Street to the Garden Grove Freeway

Changes: Lane for southbound Garden Grove connector to southbound Costa Mesa Freeway; rebuild Santa Clara and 17th streets and Fairhaven Avenue overcrossings; regular and auxiliary lane in each direction; widen carpool buffer, median and shoulder, add carpool bypass lane to northbound loop onramp

Cost: $1 million, right of way; $24 million, construction

Start/completion: Underway/late 1997

On the San Diego Freeway

9. Costa Mesa Freeway Transitway

Changes: Carpool direct connectors

Cost: $26 million, right of way; $220 million, construction

Start/completion: 1999/2003

* Sources: Orange County Transportation Authority, Transportation Corridor Agencies