The Santa Monica freeway diamond lanes. Volume I. Summary. Final report, March 1976-August 1976

Technical Report · Thu Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1977

OSTI ID:6263352

Billheimer, J W; Bullemer, R J; Fratessa, C

The Santa Monica Freeway Diamond Lanes, a pair of concurrent-flow preferential lanes for buses and carpools linking the City of Santa Monica, California, with the Los Angeles CBD, opened on March 16, 1976 and operated amid much controversy for 21 weeks until the U.S. District Court halted the project. The Diamond Lane project marked the first time preferential lanes had been created by taking busy freeway lanes out of existing service and dedicating them to the exclusive use of high-occupancy vehicles. This report summarizes the findings of the evaluation of the project. The report addresses a broad range of impacts in the following major areas: Traffic speeds and travel times; traffic volumes and carpool information; bus operations and ridership; safety and enforcement; energy and air quality; and public attitudes and response. Analysis shows that the project succeeded in increasing carpool ridership by 65% and the increased bus service accompanying the Diamond Lanes caused bus ridership to more than triple. Nonetheless, energy savings and air quality improvements were insignificant, freeway accidents increased significantly, non-carpoolers lost far more time than carpoolers gained, and a heated public outcry developed which has delayed the implementation of other preferential treatment projects in S. California.

• Research Organization: Systan, Inc., Los Altos, CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6263352
• Report Number(s): PB-286567
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
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AIR QUALITY
AUTOMOBILES
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CARPOOLING
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