Earthquake: The Long Road Back : County Commuters Breezing Into L.A., For Now

Mike Slate was braced for the worst Wednesday when he and four other passengers boarded a white van at 5:45 a.m. for their daily commute from Thousand Oaks to downtown Los Angeles on the Ventura Freeway.

Deluged with dire predictions about traffic tie-ups of epic proportions because of earthquake damage to the freeways, the group expected their usual 45-minute commute to take at least twice as long--or even come to a complete standstill.

But the ride took little more than half an hour and--even with heavy traffic--was relatively free of congestion. By 6:20 a.m., Slate was exiting the freeway onto Temple Street downtown.

“Definitely we have more traffic today, but we are not running behind schedule,� said Slate, 46, a Bank of America vice president who has been commuting with four other Thousand Oaks residents since 1986.

“We moved surprisingly well,� said passenger Kenneth W. Bauer, a personnel executive with Arco.

Added passenger Michael F. Vercillo: “We are lucky that the Ventura Freeway was not damaged.�

Other commuters were not so lucky Wednesday, officials said.

For some, navigating around the collapsed freeways and buckled roads to get to downtown Los Angeles took as long as four hours.

And state transportation officials project congestion will worsen in the coming weeks for all commuters, including Ventura County workers who make the daily trek into Los Angeles County.

By next Monday, according to officials at the California Department of Transportation, the Ventura Freeway could be especially troublesome because workers who take the San Diego and Golden State freeways--both substantially damaged in Monday’s temblor--will begin relying heavily on the Ventura Freeway as an alternate route.

“The traffic on the (Ventura Freeway) will probably increase as people return to work and businesses reopen on Monday,� said Caltrans spokesman Tony Colella.

And by Monday, officials predicted, traffic will pick up significantly as residents who stayed home this week to clean up the debris left by the earthquake return to work, said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Ernie Garcia.

On Wednesday, however, Ventura resident Debra Leiter, a teacher at Hoover High School in Glendale, agreed that the commute was busy--but fast. “It was never this crowded in the morning,� she said, adding that it still took her the usual hour to get from Ventura to Glendale.

“It was easy sailing this morning,� said another driver, David Servaes, who took the Ventura Freeway from Ventura to downtown Los Angeles at 5:30 a.m.

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For Slate and his fellow commuters, the prospect of worsening traffic congestion over the next few weeks is a major concern.

“We used to leave Thousand Oaks at 6:15 a.m.� said passenger Rita C. Romano, 49, a contract administrator for Arco. “But about two years ago we started leaving at 5:45 a.m. so we could beat the traffic.�

“We kept moving it (the time) further and further,� added Bauer, as the van passed the entrance to the San Diego Freeway.

Starting next week, however, the group may start leaving at 5:30 a.m. or earlier, they said.

“I am pretty sure it is not going to get better,� Bauer said.

Leaving earlier, Romano said, “will make the day longer and I certainly wouldn’t be thrilled about it. But I will do what I have to to avoid the crowded freeways.�