Carpool lane revolution

Letting solo drivers use carpool lanes? Herasy, say traditionalists. But Orange County transportation officials seem serious about the idea and got a small boost in their campaign. Times Staff Writer David Reyes reports that officials are talking about letting solo drivers use the lanes during non-peak hours:

Whether to allow solo Orange County freeway motorists to drive in carpool lanes during off-peak hours will be decided by local Caltrans officials rather than those in Sacramento. That increases the possibility that solo drivers will be able to use the carpool lanes, as they can in parts of the Bay Area and Sacramento, Carolyn Cavecche, chairwoman of the Orange County Transportation Authority, said Monday. County Supervisor Bill Campbell first made the request about a year ago. In December, new carpool lanes on the Garden Grove Freeway became the first "continuous access" lanes in Southern California, enabling drivers to go in and out of the lanes regardless of how they are striped. The same access could be applied on other freeways in the county if the Caltrans policy is changed.

Officials say they are a ways from opening up the lanes. But they say if the idea works on the 22, it could expand to other OC freeway carpool lanes.

Comments

[Ingrid Braun]

The carpool lanes on the Antelope Valley Freeway (Highway 14) have always been for peak hours only.

[Jeff Baler]

Merging cars cause freeway congestion. Carpool lanes that terminate into a crowded freeway should be converted to standard lanes. For example, the carpool lane on the 71 freeway is short - and creates a bottleneck when it merges back into itself. The engineers didn't think this one through. Better to block it off and let traffic flow on on fewer lanes.

[Alexa]

I live in the Bay Area right now, and opening up the carpool lanes to solo drivers during non-commute hours seems to work well. Also, I much prefer being able to get in and out of the carpool lane at will. I was in SoCal this weekend, and my husband and I used the carpool lane, but we would always get stuck behind some driver who seemed to think that the carpool speed limit was only 55 mph! Very annoying to have to wait behind that car until an exit became available.

And it's heresy, not herasy, by the way.

[Alexa]

I live in the Bay Area right now, and opening up the carpool lanes to solo drivers during non-commute hours seems to work well. Also, I much prefer being able to get in and out of the carpool lane at will. I was in SoCal this weekend, and my husband and I used the carpool lane, but we would always get stuck behind some driver who seemed to think that the carpool speed limit was only 55 mph! Very annoying to have to wait behind that car until an exit became available.

And it's heresy, not herasy, by the way.

[Patrick]

I think this idea would definately help traffic on the off-peak hours when there is an accident or some sort of delay. Makes sense to me!