Lawmakers Void Change in El Monte Busway Rule

State lawmakers Monday took the unpleasant step of admitting a mistake and gave final legislative approval to a bill that corrects diamond-lane legislation that critics say is responsible for snarling traffic on the heavily used El Monte Busway.

“It didn’t work,” said Assemblyman Bob Margett (R-Arcadia). “It was a mess. It was a catastrophe.”

Margett introduced the bill to restore the requirement that vehicles in the diamond lane on the San Bernardino Freeway carry three or more people during peak commuting hours, from 7 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. The earlier action, which caused the unintended confusion, had reduced the carpool lane requirement to two people per vehicle.

As a compromise, Margett’s bill keeps the carpool lane open to two-person carpools outside of rush hours.

Needing 54 votes, or a two-thirds majority, to take effect immediately upon the governor’s signature, the bill passed 58 to 12. Although Gov. Gray Davis has not taken a position on the bill, he is expected to sign it.

Caltrans, an agency managed by the governor, long opposed any changes in the bus expressway, which runs 11 miles on the San Bernardino Freeway from Baldwin Avenue in El Monte to Mission Road near downtown Los Angeles.

In a prophetic report to the Legislature four years ago, Caltrans said that dropping the carpool requirements from three people to two per vehicle during peak hours “would overload the system, causing congestion and delay, and present an unacceptable level of service.”

A Caltrans study a year later found that just under half of all commuters using the five-lane San Bernardino Freeway during rush hours were traveling in the single carpool lane, and 48% of them were bus passengers. Those were eye-popping numbers for a region where most commuters are wedded to personal cars.

As a result, the busway was one of the most successful projects of its kind in the state.

That changed when the carpool lane requirements were adjusted last year. Buses quickly became backed up in traffic. With delays of 20 minutes or longer each direction, Caltrans determined that about 600 people, the equivalent of 15 full buses, left the buses and began using the busway in two-person carpools, said Margie Tiritilli, a Caltrans spokeswoman in Los Angeles.

The flight was so swift and serious that some officials warned it could threaten the viability of the busway.

Others stayed with the buses but complained of being late for work or missing child-care deadlines in the evening.

In its daily monitoring of the busway, Caltrans said that, since the change, more cars but fewer people are moving down the freeway during peak hours. The average speed of 65 mph was reduced by half, Tiritilli said.

As traffic backed up, lawmakers heard about it through hundreds of angry letters that poured in from constituents.

“I’ve probably had more letters regarding this change than any other thing that has impacted freeways in that area,” said Assemblyman Robert Pacheco (R-Walnut) during the debate in Sacramento on Monday.

Helping lead the charge to correct the problem was Foothill Transit, which runs about 500 bus trips along the busway each day, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

“I’m elated,” said Julie M. Austin, executive director of Foothill. “We are just looking forward to getting our buses to run on time again.”

MTA spokesman Marc Littman agreed. “We think it is going to help ease the heavy traffic that exists on the busway now,” he said.

The bill that caused all the problems was carried by state Sen. Hilda Solis (D-La Puente), who was a coauthor of the Margett bill.

In passing the first bill, Solis and other lawmakers said they were responding to commuters who complained about being trapped in traffic in the other lanes of the freeway as buses and other vehicles with three or more occupants breezed by in the diamond lane.

They justified the bill on the ground that the busway was “underutilized.” The bill called opening up the carpool lane “a demonstration project,” and scheduled it to expire July 1, 2001. Meanwhile, Caltrans was to do a study.

The Solis bill was greeted enthusiastically by a small but highly vocal group of legislators who are questioning carpool lanes throughout the state. Their argument is that the special lanes are underutilized and increase traffic congestion in the other lanes.

Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge), arguing against the Margett bill in the Assembly on Monday, cited Caltrans studies showing that, since the changeover in January, peak-hour volume in the diamond lane and in the other lanes had increased.

But others countered with arguments that, while there may be more cars on the freeway, they are moving more slowly and, therefore, transporting fewer passengers overall.