Public Support Of Continuous-Access Carpool Lanes On The Rise

Survey results show 71 percent of motorists favor entering and exiting carpool lanes at any point on Orange County freeways
ORANGE – Eighty percent of motorists support permanently maintaining continuous-access carpool lanes on the Garden Grove Freeway (SR-22), which allows drivers with two or more passengers to enter and exit the carpool lanes freely without waiting for designated entry points.
In March 2007, Southern California’s first continuous-access carpool lanes were implemented on the SR-22. A survey at the time found 66 percent of drivers agreed continuous-access lanes improve travel time for all freeway drivers, which has increased to 71 percent in the recent follow-up survey.
Between November 2008 and January 2009, 1,091 households were surveyed to determine the feasibility of maintaining continuous-access carpool lanes on the SR-22.
Seventy-one percent of survey participants agree continuous-access carpool lanes make freeways safer. Also, 71 percent favor converting carpool lanes on other Orange County freeways to continuous-access, an increase of 12 percent since 2007. Compared to 2007, motorists awareness of continuous-access lanes on SR-22 has increased from 42 percent to 49 percent.
Caltrans has completed studies on converting the carpool lanes to continuous access on the San Diego Freeway (I-405), Riverside Freeway (SR-91), Orange Freeway (SR-57) and Costa Mesa Freeway (SR-55).
Half of SR-55, between 17th Street and SR-91 was converted to continuous access in August 2007. OCTA is exploring options to fund the remainder of the SR-55 conversion, estimated to cost $1.4 million. The remaining conversions are expected to be worked into planned freeway maintenance and improvement projects.
In total, Caltrans estimates it will cost $12.5 million to convert all four freeways.