FREEING UP CAR-POOL LANES CRACKDOWN TARGETS SOLO DRIVERS FINES MIGHT INCREASE AS WAY TO EASE CONGESTION ON HOVS.

Byline: SUE DOYLE

Staff Writer

For now, hybrid cars can keep zooming along in California's car-pool lanes. But other solo motorists who have been sneaking into the lanes are going to have to go.

That's because, under federal pressure to speed up sluggish car-pool lanes, California transit officials said Tuesday that they will seek to crack down on motorists who use the lanes illegally and boost the fines for violators.

The beefed-up enforcement push comes as federal officials had set a deadline this month for Caltrans to develop strategies to deal with the traffic-clogging lanes that were supposed to be speedy options for drivers.

Nearly one-half of the 1,380 miles of car-pool lanes in the state are out of federal compliance because cars are traveling too slowly in them, stuck amid a burgeoning number of drivers swarming the roadways.

Caltrans officials said they are asking the California Highway Patrol to toughen enforcement on the roughly 5 percent who don't belong in car-pool lanes.

"It's not a lot of people," said Will Kempton, director of the California Department of Transportation. "But even if we could eliminate or cut that rate in half, we would see significant improvements in the system."

Currently, car-pool-lane violators can be slapped with a $376 ticket, but Caltrans said it will recommend that the fine be increased.

Kempton said Tuesday that he did not know how much Caltrans officials might recommend.

Caltrans' announcement, however, fell far short of a call from the federal government in June for strategies to get the car-pool lanes moving quickly.

More time needed

Caltrans officials said Tuesday that they need another month to analyze solutions to the problem -- and that their study would review only about 13 percent of the state's car-pool lanes that are the most congested.

California's car-pool lanes first triggered federal oversight after the state allowed solo drivers in hybrid vehicles to use them. About 85,000 of the fuel-efficient vehicles have qualified for the perk through 2010.

As part of the deal, Caltrans files reports on the lanes with the Federal Highway Administration -- and that's how federal officials noticed that vehicles in the lanes were traveling too slowly.

Drivers in car-pool lanes need to maintain a minimum of 45 mph at least 90 percent of the time during rush hour for six months out of the year under federal guidelines. Kempton said that requirement is too rigid to work in California.

Still, cars in about 46 percent of California's car-pool lanes travel slower than these guidelines. And in 13 percent of the lanes, they move even slower than that.

Last year, the CHP issued 49,650 citations to solo drivers in car-pool lanes. Fines vary by county, but about 16,530 motorists in Los Angeles County were cited and hit with $376 fines.

Still, the cost doesn't always deter drivers, some of whom cannot resist slipping into the car-pool lanes when everything else on the freeway is jammed.

"For some, an increased fine is a lot of money," said CHP spokeswoman Fran Clader. "For others, it doesn't make a difference."

To boost enforcement, the CHP will seek overtime for its officers or could reallocate money within the agency to add more patrols for car-pool lanes.

Solutions viewed

Federal Highway Administration officials did not immediately know whether Caltrans could lose federal funding if it does not bring its lanes into compliance.

Caltrans officials have previously pointed to the state's massive population size of 37.4 million residents as the reason for its clogged lanes and not the hybrid drivers now using them.

However, these uber-fuel-efficient cars might not always be king of the car-pool lanes if speeds don't improve.

"Only when no other steps work to reduce congestion, it may be necessary to prohibit single-occupant hybrid vehicles from extremely congested HOV segments," said Kempton.

Adding toll lanes, changing hours for solo-driver use and building more high-occupancy lanes may be long-term solutions.

Other steps to keep traffic moving include cleaning up freeway crashes more quickly since they create one-quarter of traffic snarls, Kempton said.

In April, the state agency set a goal of reducing its crash-clearance time from an average of three hours to under 90 minutes.

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Caltrans is asking the CHP to toughen enforcement on the 5 percent of motorists who don't belong in car-pool lanes.

(2) Nearly one-half of the 1,380 miles of car-pool lanes in the state are out of federal compliance because cars are traveling too slowly in them, stuck amid more drivers swarming roadways.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer