TASK FORCE TO STUDY TOLL LANES; FEES COULD PAY FOR WIDENING A.V. FREEWAY.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Southern California's regional planning agency will study the feasibility of adding toll lanes to the Antelope Valley Freeway as part of a 20-year transportation blueprint designed to relieve congestion.

A task force of the Southern California Association of Governments will conduct a $250,000 study to evaluate whether another lane in each direction can be added to the Antelope Valley Freeway and how much that would cost.

``The toll lane is in the plan,'' said Palmdale Councilman David Myers, who sits on the SCAG board. ``It will continue to be explored as an option. It's in the plan, but it's something to be looked at.''

The regional council of SCAG, a governing body made up of city council members and county supervisors from six counties - from Ventura to Imperial - voted 38-3 Thursday to adopt the landmark long-range plan at a meeting in Simi Valley.

The plan must now be submitted to the Federal Transit Administration, which will verify if the plan meets the region's transportation needs and conforms to air quality standards.

The toll lane idea was contained in SCAG's draft transportation plan but the board decided to study the idea first after Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich said he opposed it and other north county transportation officials preferred an evaluation, Myers said.

``In working through the North County Transportation Coalition (made up of representatives from the Antelope Valley, Santa Clarita and Los Angeles County), the consensus was take a look at it,'' Myers said. ``Evaluation was chosen because it was so early in the process. The coalition wants to figure out the best way.''

The draft SCAG plan originally called for widening the freeway to create high-occupancy toll lanes - free for vehicles carrying three or more people, but not for those with one or two occupants.

The report proposed opening the lanes - one in each direction from Avenue L to the Golden State Freeway - in 2010, and said they would cost $364 million. That was nearly three times the $130 million Caltrans is spending to add a car-pool lane in each direction by 2002.

Antonovich said last December that toll lanes constitute a special tax and will do little to relieve traffic congestion.

Proponents say charging tolls would provide a way to finance two more lanes, for which there is otherwise no money, and reduce freeway congestion that is sure to worsen in the future.

Under the plan approved Thursday, a task force chaired by Myers will research the ``physical constraints'' on the Antelope Valley Freeway and the benefits of high-occupancy toll lanes, Myers said. SCAG is applying for a grant from the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The study will take at least two to three years, Myer said.

``The region has recognized that the 14 (Freeway) is going to need some kind of additional capacity, whether it's a high-occupancy toll lane or some other kind of thing,'' he said.

Myers said the toll lanes were considered because the Metropolitan Transportation Agency did not fund an additional lane for the Antelope Valley Freeway.

``The only way to get more money to the 14 was to add it to the SCAG process as a high-occupancy toll lane,'' Myers said.

The plan also calls for consideration of a regional high-speed rail system that would connect major transit centers like Union Station with Ontario and Palmdale airports, and increasing the capacity of the Metrolink commuter rail system.

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PHOTO (Color--Ran in AV Edition only) Proponents of a plan to put high-occupancy toll lanes on the Antelope Valley Freeway say such a strategy could have traffic moving this smoothly even during rush hour.

Shaun Dyer/Daily News