‘Disaster Waiting to Happen’ : Seymour Calls Car-Pool Lanes Too Dangerous

The car-pool lanes on the Costa Mesa Freeway make the road a “disaster waiting to happen” and should be abolished, the author of legislation that could do away with the lanes said Friday.

“We are playing Russian roulette with the lives of the motorists because of the configuration” of the freeway, state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) said.

Seymour has introduced legislation requiring that car-pool lanes in the state be at least 11 feet wide, that adjacent regular traffic lanes be at least 12 feet wide and that federal and state standards calling for road shoulders 8 to 12 feet wide be followed.

“This bill fits the 55 (Costa Mesa) freeway only, and it sets the first minimum standards (for car-pool lanes) in the state,” Seymour said.

He said regular traffic lanes on the Costa Mesa Freeway are only 11 feet wide (as are the car-pool lanes) and the shoulder width varies from 8 inches to 2 feet.

Not Wide Enough

State and local officials say the freeway is not wide enough to expand the lanes to meet the dimensions specified by Seymour.

Harriett Wieder, a county supervisor and chairman of the Orange County Transportation Commission, says that while she welcomes safety standards, she opposes Seymour’s bill because of the “distinct possibility” that it would force the Costa Mesa Freeway to revert back to a six-lane road. Another commission member, Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, says he also opposes the bill.

But Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, who appeared at the Santa Ana news conference with Seymour, said he backs the proposed legislation. Stanton said the car-pool lanes could be converted to regular traffic lanes, making the freeway four lanes in each direction, as it is now, but with all lanes open to all traffic.

The car-pool lanes, restricted to cars carrying two or more people, stretch for 11 miles in each direction between the Riverside and San Diego freeways.

Supporters and opponents of the car-pool lanes say accident statistics so far are inconclusive, although studies are continuing.

“You don’t have to be a Ph.D to conclude that the great disparity of speed” between cars traveling quickly in the car-pool lanes and “separated by mere inches from those in a stop-and-go mode represents a tremendous risk to public safety,” Seymour said.

‘Sidestepped the Issue’

Stanton, who does have a Ph.D, said he thought the California Department of Transportation “sidestepped the issue of safety” in making the lanes permanent Jan. 26, after introducing them on a test basis on Nov. 18, 1985.

Stanton said car-pool lanes might have a place on other freeways and should be studied. Seymour agreed even though, he said, he is philosophically opposed to the lanes as “social engineering” that “jams people up and forces people out of their car.”

As a prop for television cameras at the news conference, Seymour used an enlarged color photograph loaned by a small, but vocal, group called Drivers for Highway Safety, which has opposed the car-pool lanes since the beginning.

The group’s co-founder, Joe Catron, said that Seymour “has brought up the points today that we have been fighting for for 16 months.”

Seymour rated prospects for passage of his bill as “pretty good,” despite the attack on him this week by state Sen. President Pro Tem David Roberti (D-Los Angeles).

Roberti stripped Seymour of his chairmanship and membership on one committee, his vice chairmanship and membership on another and his vice chairmanship of a third committee.

Roberti accused Seymour, the Senate’s second-ranking Republican as chairman of the GOP caucus, of plotting to oust him as Senate leader. Seymour said Friday he did not know what effect Roberti’s opposition might have on his bill.