Carpool lanes on 55 to get more open access
Transportation officials will announce plans today to liberalize carpool lane access along a six-mile stretch of the congested 55 Freeway, making Orange County one of the few metropolitan areas in the state to allow drivers to pull in and out of the ride-share lanes when they want.
Most Southern California freeways require drivers to enter and exit carpool lanes only at stretches marked with broken yellow lines.
The carpool lane on the 55 Freeway between the 91 Freeway and 17th Street in Santa Ana is the first existing carpool lane in Orange County to be converted to an unrestricted lane, meaning the lanes will be re-striped to allow carpoolers to enter and leave at any time.
“The frustration that people have with most carpool lanes is that you are only given a very small opening, and everyone is trying to get out and in at the same time,” said Carolyn Cavecche, an Orange County Transportation Authority board member. “It creates unsafe driving conditions.”
Allowing drivers to go in and out of carpool lanes freely results in fewer and less severe accidents, according to a 2007 study by UC Berkeley transportation researchers. The report found that using yellow lines to restrict access resulted in 3.6 collisions per mile compared with 3.2 collisions per mile for free access freeways.
OCTA and the California Department of Transportation decided to convert the lanes after a successful experiment in December 2006 with unrestricted carpool lanes on the 22 Freeway. An OCTA-commissioned survey in 2007 also found that 71% of drivers on the 22 Freeway preferred unrestricted carpool lanes.
OCTA has attempted to persuade Caltrans to increase carpool access on freeways in Orange County as a way to relieve traffic.
Drivers who can freely change lanes to more easily exit freeways cause fewer accidents, Cavecche said. Critics, however, say unrestricted carpool lanes can cause more accidents when slow drivers suddenly merge into fast-moving carpool lanes.
The agency is studying other Orange County freeways to see whether more carpool lanes could be converted, Cavecche said. Open carpool lanes are already in use in the Bay Area and in Sacramento.
Work on the freeway starts Tuesday and should be completed by Aug. 13, officials say.
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