Our Rides Are Getting Smoother

Like interlocking ribbons, Orange County’s new freeway ramps are weaving over, under and around other strands of roadway. The changes in the infrastructure landscape are fruits of long years of planning and in some instances the willingness of taxpayers to vote for improvements back in 1990. Sometimes it takes awhile to realize the benefits, but this fall some of the results are turning up in time for the busy activities of the season.

The first in a recent series to come on line was the link from the northbound Corona del Mar Freeway to the southbound Costa Mesa Freeway. This road opened with minor fanfare a few weeks back, but already it is carving substantial commuting minutes off the trip into Newport Beach for anyone coming from the UC Irvine area and points all the way south along the San Joaquin Hills tollway.

Until very recently, resourceful drivers bound for Newport Beach had two unattractive alternatives if they did not want to wind along Pacific Coast Highway to the intersection of Newport Boulevard. One was to crawl north along the San Diego Freeway to the southbound Costa Mesa Freeway, a bottleneck because of recent road construction. Or, in one of the great circuitous driving experiences offered anywhere in Orange County, they had to drive past the point where the Costa Mesa Freeway goes under the Corona del Mar Freeway, exit at Bear Street, turn left under a light, go left up a ramp to the opposite side of the freeway, and then retreat south on to the southbound Costa Mesa Freeway junction toward Newport Beach.

This dizzying set of alternatives is eased by one simple new ramp, dramatic enough in its turn to earn a 25-mph speed limit. But it raises an obvious question: Why wasn’t it built much earlier?

As Disneyland prepares for another theme park, other road improvements totaling $1.1 billion in the Anaheim area are coming on line to offer a merciful benefit for motorists who have been crawling through the city in the last few years with excruciating disruption of commuting patterns.

One upgrade eliminates the need to exit from the fast lane and allows for one that makes more sense: to get off from the right side. Caltrans also has new carpool lanes and connector ramps and tunnels that funnel traffic in and out of Disneyland, and that generally improve traffic flow in Anaheim, including access to Edison International Field.

All these improvements have come at a cost in dollars and patience. But now that we see them, hurray. They appear worth the wait.