Lawmakers mull reversible freeway lanes

A bill in Sacramento that will require state and local roadway plaers to consider reversible, capacity-increasing traffic lanes on state streets and highways got a 15-0 approval from the Assembly Transportation Committee.

The bill, AB 2542 by Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Glendale, requires Caltrans and regional transportation agencies to consider reversible lanes “for major street alignments or capacity-increasing projects,” Gatto’s office said.

After the April 18 vote, the bill went back to the Appropriations Committee.

Neither the Riverside County Transportation Commission nor the San Beardino Associated Govements, have taken on position on the bill, which was introduced Feb. 19.

But one Riverside official said reversible lanes require a “very strong and defined travel patte” — and those can be difficult to disce on highways that carry heavy traffic loads in both directions, regardless of time of day.

Such direction-changing lanes, in which existing traffic lanes are adapted for traffic pattes and time of day — one direction for the moing commute and the other direction for the afteoon retu trip — are used sparingly so far in Califoia.

The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco uses reversible lanes, as does the San Diego-Coronado Bridge, where a 30-ton, 58-foot-long contraption — also known as a “Zipper” — picks up and moves concrete barriers to switch lanes around.

A northbound-southbound stretch of Express Lanes on Interstate 15 in San Diego are rearranged by a Zipper on Thursdays to accommodate traffic pattes, a regional Caltrans spokesman said.

The $20.5 million system has been criticized for being rarely used, and for the time it takes for rearranging lanes for an unplaed event such as an accident.

Gatto said in a telephone interview that he believes reversible lanes need to be in the mix more often, and that technology such as road sensors and traffic cameras can provide the data to make reversible lanes manageable.

“We are very much stuck with what a road was 50 years ago — a paved surface with a barrier in the middle as a median,” he said. “Sometimes the folks in charge of managing our roads don’t always come up with the most common-sense solutions, and policy makers have to kind of steer them in the right direction.”

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While Riverside County Transportation Commission has not taken a position on the bill, commission Deputy Executive Director John Standiford said in an email: “We will have significant conces should it move forward.”

He said several options are already considered while roadway projects are being plaed, and local agencies are better suited to determine them.

“It appears to be yet another way of making it harder to add highway capacity, since this is directed only on projects that add capacity,” he said.

Gatto said his bill would likely not address already-approved capacity work, but could come into play for the latter stages of an existing project.

Surface streets designated as state highways as well as projects with significant state funding could be affected if his bill becomes law, Gatto said.

In 2015, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a Gatto bill that would have allowed all motorists to use carpool lanes during off-peak hours on the 134 Freeway from North Hollywood to Pasadena and the 210 Freeway from Pasadena to Glendora.