Freeway Extension Eases Gridlock -- for Now

In a region cursed with the nation’s worst gridlock, a new 14-mile stretch of freeway that opened in the San Gabriel Valley last month is being welcomed like a cool oasis in a parched desert.

The extension of the Foothill Freeway from La Verne to Rancho Cucamonga is close to commuter nirvana: smooth pavement and graffiti-free street signs. During a weekday rush hour in Claremont, traffic on the new stretch was moving at 75 mph -- in the slow lane.

“It’s fabulous,” said Molly Mitchell, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who credits the new Foothill Freeway extension for cutting 20 minutes out of her daily commute from her home in Rancho Cucamonga to her job in Whittier.

She is so happy with her commute that she is almost sorry to be retiring from her job in three months.

“I wish they had finished it three years ago,” she said.

The relatively free-flowing roadway has become so tempting to some lead-footed drivers that the California Highway Patrol recently cracked down on speeders, netting 200 violators, including a motorist who was clocked at 95 mph on a weekday afternoon.

But not everyone is happy with the side effects of the new freeway, and transportation experts predict the fast-moving traffic will not last.

Some commuters complain that the new extension is drawing traffic off the chronically congested San Bernardino Freeway, which runs parallel to the Foothill Freeway, and dumping additional cars and trucks onto the previously built section of the freeway that cuts through Azusa, Glendora, Monrovia and Arcadia.

“Going that way is ugly,” Carmen Valverde, who commutes from her home in La Verne to her job in East Los Angeles, said while filling up her tank at a gas station near the freeway.

But with a huge population boom expected in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, experts say it is only a matter of time before the entire stretch of the Foothill Freeway gets as ugly as other gridlocked freeways in the area.

Officials from the California Department of Transportation said it is too early to tell for certain how the new extension will affect traffic patterns throughout the region.

But some transportation experts say the freeway will probably start to fill up soon as a result of “latent demand,” a theory that says adding freeway lanes will only accommodate more driving trips, thus making freeway construction only a temporary solution.

“When congestion gets bad, people get more judicious about driving,” said Brian Taylor, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA. Conversely, he said, when congestion eases, drivers are more inclined to get behind the wheel.

State transportation officials say the extension -- part of a larger 28-mile stretch that will be completed by 2006 -- is probably one of the last major freeway projects in Southern California. For the most part, the state will focus on maintaining existing freeways and adding carpool lanes where possible.

For some motorists, it has been too tempting. The CHP recently deployed 16 patrol cars and a helicopter to crack down on speeders on the new stretch of freeway between Fontana and Claremont.

“Speeds are significantly higher today on that stretch,” said CHP officer Bill Russell.

It seems the extension has already benefited the entire freeway system in the region. The 14-mile stretch connects with a previously completed six-mile section between Fontana and Rancho Cucamonga and hooks up with Interstate 15, creating a new, more direct route from Los Angeles County to Las Vegas.

Since the freeway extension opened, CHP officials and airborne traffic reporters say traffic has been much lighter on the parallel San Bernardino Freeway. Traffic on parallel city streets, such as Foothill Boulevard and Baseline Road, has also eased. Before the extension opened, such roads were usually gridlocked during peak commute hours.

“It certainly makes getting around a whole lot better,” said Carole Anthony, president of the Upland Chamber of Commerce.

She said merchants along the parallel thoroughfares hope the improved traffic flow will entice more shoppers to patronize businesses on the now-clearer streets.

The new freeway section has been good news to businesses that depend on reliable transportation, including Holliday Rocks, a sand, gravel and concrete company in Upland. Jim Holliday, the company’s vice president, said his company can now haul concrete to customers as far away as Los Angeles without fear that it will dry and harden along the way.

“It’s a big improvement for us,” he said.