Legislator Is Driven to Lift Limits on Carpool Lanes

You don’t have to drive for long in Southern California to encounter this frustrating scenario:

You are stuck in snail-paced traffic that seems to stretch on forever. Suddenly, your bleary eyes spot a free-flowing lane, with motorists happily zipping past.

It is not a roadway mirage. It is a carpool lane, and in Southern California, single-occupant vehicles--or 80% of the motoring public--are prohibited. That ban extends 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And don’t try sneaking in on Christmas, or you’ll find a $271 citation in your stocking.

Assemblyman George Runner (R-Lancaster) has seen this scenario played out hundreds of times on Southern California freeways, and he wants to change it.

Last year, he pushed a bill through the state Legislature to measure the effects of expanding access to the lanes. The law has temporarily opened the carpool lanes on a 17-mile stretch of the Antelope Valley Freeway between Santa Clarita and Palmdale to all vehicles during non-commuting hours.

“It does not make a lot of sense to have a lane of the freeway closed off to a lot of people,” Runner said.

Under the 18-month pilot project, which ends in June, the lanes are restricted to vehicles with two or more passengers during the peak weekday commute times: 5 to 9 a.m. in the southbound direction and 3 to 7 p.m. in the northbound direction. At other times, the lanes are open to all vehicles, regardless of the number of passengers.

This marks the first time in Southern California that single-occupant vehicles have been able to cruise the carpool lanes without starting a high-speed police pursuit.

Runner’s hope is to convince the California Department of Transportation that such a change improves overall traffic flow. Then he’d like to see the carpool lanes opened on other Southland freeways.

He shouldn’t hold his breath, however. Runner’s idea has been hotly debated for years, but Caltrans officials have refused to consider it for Southern California’s 688 miles of carpool lanes.

Never mind that Caltrans itself has for three decades opened up carpool lanes to all traffic during off-peak hours in the Bay Area. Never mind that many motorists and some top traffic experts have repeatedly urged Caltrans to consider doing the same on Southland freeways.

Last year, the state’s legislative analyst issued a 24-page document that endorsed the concept of lifting the carpool restrictions on some Southern California freeways during off-peak hours.

Arthur Manask, a Studio City consultant, is one of the frustrated L.A. commuters who thinks the restrictions make no sense. Temporarily opening carpool lanes to all traffic, he believes, would improve traffic flow and benefit everyone.

“L.A. has gridlock at all times on most all of our freeways, and this would obviously ease congestion,” he said, “especially if there was a stalled car, minor accident or freeway repairs during non-rush hours.”

Another Southern California motorist, Keith Gadbury, said he has driven in the Bay Area’s high-occupancy vehicle lanes when they are open to all traffic and doesn’t understand why it can’t work here.

“I have numerous times been stuck in a traffic jam where it’s the middle of the day and the HOV lanes are being used by only a few motorists,” he said.

California is a national leader in carpool lane use, and nearly 70% of its high-occupancy vehicle lanes are in the Southland.

Carpool lanes typically transport 1 1/2 times more people per hour than regular traffic lanes. But the analyst’s report said most carpool lanes operate at only two-thirds of their intended capacity.

The idea behind the lanes is simple: Commuters who share a ride--which reduces vehicle emissions and takes cars off the road-- are rewarded with their own lanes to zip past the gridlock.

Jill Smolinski, a spokeswoman for Southern California Rideshare, said her group wants to preserve that incentive.

The organization isn’t sure if that goal would be jeopardized by opening carpool lanes to all motorists during off-peak periods. “We just don’t know,” she said.

Caltrans has several reasons for opposing the idea of easing the restrictions, and they have nothing to do with preserving the carpool incentive.

Tom Choe, Caltrans’ chief of traffic operations in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, said that Southern California’s peak commute hours are growing longer and longer and that therefore the department would be able to open up the lanes to all traffic only for a brief period.

Secondly, Choe said, rush hours vary from freeway to freeway, so the times when single-occupant vehicles could use carpool lanes would have to vary as well. That would create confusion and make it difficult for police to enforce the carpool restrictions, he said.

High-occupancy vehicle lanes can be opened in the Bay Area, Choe said, because commute hours there are shorter and more consistent.

The idea of easing the restrictions has been the topic of heated debate among officials in the Southern California Assn. of Governments, a six-county planning group. Director Mark Pisano said the group has long opposed the idea and would consider lifting the restrictions only on a very limited basis.

But Hasan Ikhrata, the group’s transportation planning manager, supports such changes and thinks Caltrans is simply too rigid to consider new ideas.

Ikhrata said Bay Area commuters have proved that lifting the limits at some times is not confusing and does not pose enforcement problems.

“Why aren’t we doing it?” he asked. “There really is no good reason.”

For now, the temporary changes to the carpool lane rules on the Antelope Valley Freeway seem to be working fine, said California Highway Patrol Capt. Brian Smith, who patrols sections of that freeway.

He said that there has been no problem enforcing the new rules and that they don’t seem to confuse motorists.

Not only that, Smith said, traffic seems to flow better too.

“I like the idea of using it on the off-peak hours,” he said. “It allows one more lane for people to use.”

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