Let All Use Carpool Lanes in Off-Hours, Transit Official Asks

Solo drivers on freeways throughout Southern California should be permitted to use carpool lanes during off-peak hours -- just like motorists in parts of the Bay Area and Sacramento, the chairman of the Orange County Transportation Authority says.

“The purpose of this idea is to help congestion,” says Bill Campbell, who is also an Orange County supervisor. “Northern California is already doing it, and this should help spread traffic over all lanes and make it safer and free-flowing too.”

Today, Campbell will ask the authority’s board to request that state Caltrans Director Will Kempton examine regional carpool-lane policies and open the lanes to more motorists.

A former assemblyman, Campbell got the idea while commuting in Sacramento County. There, Caltrans restricts carpool lane access only during morning and evening rush hours.

But between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. and again after 7 p.m., they are open to all vehicles -- even those with only a driver.

In addition, motorists can go in and out of the carpool lane without regard to lane striping.

At least five Northern California counties -- Sacramento, Alameda, Santa Clara, Contra Costa and Marin -- allow this flexibility.

In Southern California, a few areas, including the Antelope Valley Freeway, allow off-peak use by all motorists.

“They’ve solved how to do it in Northern California, and if any study or review gets done, it needs to be done regionally, and that includes L.A. County and the other counties in Southern California,” Campbell said.

Campbell said a recent commute into Los Angeles County made him doubt whether drivers heed carpool laws.

Nobody seems to pay attention to the status of carpool lanes, he said. Drivers ignore restrictions and heavy fines for breaking the rules. “It seems there’s no fear,” he said.

He wants to abolish the signs and lane markings that regulate when and where motorists can enter and exit the carpool lanes.

Caltrans officials said they would weigh the study request, and some drivers and the Automobile Club of Southern California said they favored such a review.

Both Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol have responsibility for the lanes.

“Having that extra lane would be a good option, because I do a lot of solo traveling,” said Robin Clyde of Mission Viejo. Allowing drivers to exit the carpool lane when they want is a good idea too, she said.

When she does use the carpool lanes on the San Diego Freeway, she said she has noticed sections that don’t give carpoolers enough room to get out of the lane, negotiate four lanes of traffic and exit at the nearest offramp.

“Letting single drivers use the carpool lane is a good idea. I like it,” said Benito Octavio of Costa Mesa. “I can’t wait for it to happen.”

But Scott Wandry of Garden Grove was ambivalent. Although it sounds good, it might be more dangerous and hard for the California Highway Patrol to police, he said.

Dan Beal, managing director of public policy for the Auto Club, heard about Campbell’s effort and supports it.

“It’s worth looking at,” Beal said. “Something to consider is that we here in Southern California have peak hours that are very broad and run later into the noon hour and also later into the night. But that’s not to say it won’t work,” he said.

A Caltrans spokeswoman who has seen Campbell’s proposal said the agency would need to look at why the carpool scheme works in Northern California and determine whether it could be applied to Southern California, which has more freeway drivers and carpool-lane users.

Cindy Quon, head of Caltrans’ district office in Orange County, said the state agency welcomed “any opportunity to optimize and improve” the freeway system.

She is on the transportation authority’s board as the governor’s ex-officio member and said Caltrans would “work with our partners on a regional approach” to study the carpool policy.

The Highway Patrol referred inquiries to Caltrans.

In Washington state, a two-year demonstration project that opened the carpool lanes to all motorists at night in the Seattle area was favorably reviewed.

“Obviously we don’t have the traffic volume of Southern California, but we do know that, over the last two years, there haven’t been any obvious safety problems,” said Charles Prestrud, carpool planning manager for the state Department of Transportation in Seattle.

“My impression is the public response has been favorable,” Prestrud said.

A thorough safety analysis is pending.

In Orange County, a 2002 study looked at relaxing carpool policy for the Orange Freeway.

The study recommended against any change because it found that traffic flows for that freeway were substantially different from those in Northern California.

For example, the study found that Orange County’s carpool system carried the highest volume of any freeway system in the state. Also, there was no “definable rush hour in Orange County,” compared with other areas, said Michael Litschi, a transportation authority spokesman.

The county, the study found, had 200 miles of carpool lanes on five freeways.

It said 1,500 vehicles per hour were using carpool lanes in the county, compared with 1,000 per hour in Los Angeles County, and 930 per hour in the Bay Area.