Diamond Lanes Get Low Grade

In a report likely to generate renewed debate about the merits of carpool lanes in Orange County and throughout the state, a new legislative analysis concludes that California’s 925 miles of the restricted lanes are underused and have not persuaded drivers to change their habits.

The report, by the state legislative analyst’s office, comes as Orange County is planning to add carpool lanes as part of a widening of the Garden Grove Freeway, the final leg in what is one of the nation’s most comprehensive diamond lane networks. It is likely to give new ammunition to local critics who for two decades have fought the proliferation of carpool lanes.

“If you open a carpool lane tomorrow, there may be people driving in it, but they were already driving together yesterday. The carpool lane didn’t entice them into it,” said Wayne King, president of Orange County-based Drivers for Highway Safety, a transportation watchdog group with an emphasis on fighting carpool lanes. “We’ve been saying that for 12 years. I think the Legislature should continue to look at it; that’s their job.”

Among the report’s conclusions:

* Orange County’s lanes had more traffic on average than those of any other county in the state, although the lanes still were used under capacity.

* Caltrans should be more flexible in adjusting carpool lane hours. In Southern California, home to 70% of carpool lanes in the state, the lanes are carpools only, 24 hours a day. Some carpool lanes in Northern California are open to all cars in off-peak hours.

* Caltrans does not adequately evaluate the effectiveness of carpool lanes, even as the agency plans to add 919 more miles to the system statewide.

* The exact effect of carpool lanes on air quality is unknown.

* The Legislature should require more HOT lanes--high-occupancy/toll, free for carpools but usable by single drivers paying a toll.

Orange County commuters had a brief experience with the HOT lane concept: The privately operated 91 Express Lanes, along the Riverside Freeway, were free to carpools of three or more people when they opened in December 1995. Lower-than-expected revenue allowed the operator to start charging carpools 50% of the going rate in January 1998.

Officials with the Orange County Transportation Authority have expressed an interest in instituting HOT lanes in the county’s extensive carpool lane system, although there have been no firm plans to do so.

Expanding HOT lanes in the state would likely spark fierce political opposition. State Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, for instance, has said the only thing he dislikes more than a carpool lane is a toll road, and he has vowed to do everything in his power to prevent tolled carpool lanes.

The legislative report comes as a number of carpool-related bills are under consideration in Sacramento, including a AB44, by Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Granada Hills), to convert all diamond lanes to general use unless stringent usage criteria were met.

Opening carpool lanes to all traffic would be difficult but not unprecedented, the report says. New Jersey ended carpool lanes on two congested freeways last year, becoming the first state to do so without having to return millions in earmarked transportation funds to the federal government.

The report also points out that Tennessee is considering legislation that would effectively open up carpool lanes by reducing the fine for violating the law to $1.