Commuters Can Forget Life in the Slow Lanes

Running late for an afternoon business appointment in Mission Viejo, Joseph Roth glanced anxiously at his watch and braced himself for the inevitable sea of brake lights at the dreaded El Toro Y.

“I thought I was dead in the water as far as making my appointment,” the Anaheim resident recalled recently as he stopped for gas. “Then I drove through the Y without even touching my brakes once. It was weird, it was kind of like the ‘Twilight Zone.’ ”

Weary from battling ever-increasing traffic on South County freeways in past years, local motorists say that recent multimillion-dollar highway improvement and toll road projects seem to be accomplishing their goal: relieving the notorious freeway congestion where the San Diego and Santa Ana freeways meet.

Rush hour hasn’t disappeared, but “there is a definite, definite improvement,” said California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Carol Kelly, whose office is in San Juan Capistrano. “Traffic used to be backed up eight miles at rush hour . . . [now] people are saving at least 10 to 20 minutes” per one-way commute, she said.

The projects that have spelled relief for South County include the completion of a $166-million project to widen the El Toro Y from 8 to 26 lanes and the opening of a new toll road, the San Joaquin Hills tollway.

The El Toro Y improvements included overpasses allowing vehicles in the carpool lane to travel between the San Diego Freeway and Interstate 5 without entering the main flow of traffic.

Meanwhile, the $800-million toll road running between San Juan Capistrano and Newport Beach handles about 54,000 vehicle trips each day--about 70% of which are South County commuters--allowing motorists to bypass the El Toro Y, according to toll road officials.

Time saved behind the wheel has now become a matter of bragging rights for motorists who say they are less stressed at the end of the day.

“For me, it’s a quality of life issue,” said Laguna Hills Councilman Joel T. Lautenschleger, whose daily round-trip commute to Costa Mesa has shrunk by 50 minutes since the San Joaquin Hills toll road opened last year. “Instead of adding to my stress, [using the toll road is] like driving through the country. I am more relaxed at home and ready to do things with the kids.”

Lautenschleger and others pay 25 cents to $2 depending on where they enter and exit.

As a result, shortcuts used by those seeking escape from freeway congestion have largely been abandoned.

Lautenschleger and other community officials say fewer drivers are using their city streets to bypass traffic jams, an impression supported by a recent study done by the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency, the toll road builder.

Completed in December, a month after the toll road opened, the study showed traffic on Laguna Canyon Road--a popular road used to avoid jammed freeways--decreased by 23%.

The situation is the same on two other major arterial roads in South County, Pacific Coast Highway and Moulton Parkway, said Mission Viejo Councilwoman Susan Withrow, who is also on the Orange County Transportation Authority’s board of directors.

“We’re seeing significant decreases in Mission Viejo” in the number of vehicles resorting to side streets, Withrow said. “The improvements have had an incredible impact in terms of relieving peak hour traffic.”

According to a recent OCTA study, the public has noticed the improvement too.

Formerly the top-ranked concern among Orange County residents, transportation has slipped to number four behind crime, poverty and other social ills, Withrow said.

“To me, that says that what we’ve done is a success story,” she said. That success has gone beyond improving the quality of life for area residents. Local real estate agents said the improved commute has made South County homes easier to sell.

“People are less likely to be worried about getting property in South Orange County now,” said Wendy Webb, a real estate agent with Advanced Real Estate Services in Lake Forest. “It has increased our sales.”

The improved commute may also be responsible for improving the health of motorists who find primal anger building inside while they sit in traffic.

“[Traffic] raises blood pressure and causes a lot of stress,” said Irwin Rosenfeld, a psychiatrist at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills. “That construction collectively relieved a lot of pressure on a lot of people in Orange County.”

At the very least, “people will come home and be a little nicer to their spouse,” Rosenfeld said.

While effusive about their new commuting reality, some motorists still fear the future.

Transportation officials said there is no need to worry--for now. The toll road is far from reaching its capacity and there is room for lane expansions if needed. Another pay road running east of the San Diego Freeway, the Foothill tollway, will be completed by 2003.

But with jobs in Orange County expected to increase 44% and the population expected to grow by 30% by 2030, “there will be hundreds of thousands of additional car trips on our roads in the future,” Withrow conceded. “We have some important decisions to make to make sure we don’t return to the previous levels of congestion.”

But for today, drivers say they will use their freedom from freeway bondage wisely.

“I used to work past the rush hour,” Lautenschleger said. “Now, I can get home to see my daughter’s ballgame at 5 p.m.”