THE SANTA MONICA FREEWAY DIAMOND LANES: EVALUATION OVERVIEW John W. Billheimer, Systan, Inc. the Santa Monica Freeway Diamond La
THE SANTA MONICA FREEWAY DIAMOND LANES: EVALUATION OVERVIEW John W. Billheimer, Systan, Inc. The Santa Monica Freeway Diamond Lanes, a pair of surveillance system, and centrally-controlled elec- concurrent-flow preferential lanes for buses and tronic displays. On March 15, 1976, the California carpools linking the City of Santa Monica, Cali- Department of Transportation (CALTRANS), acting in fornia with the Los Angeles Central Business Dis- conjunction with the California Highway Patrol (CHP) trict (CBD), opened on March 16, 1976 and operated and local bus operators, reserved the median lane in amid much controversy for 21 weeks until the U.S. each direction of a 12-mile, eight-lane segment of District Court halted the project. The Diamond the Santa Monica Freeway for the exclusive use of Lane project marked the first time preferential buses and carpools carrying three or more occupants. lanes had been created by taking busy freeway lanes The reserved lanes, known locally as the Diamond out of existing service and dedicating them to the Lanes, operated in each direction during the peak exclusive use of high-occupancy vehicles. Although hours of traffic flow. No barriers separated these the Diamond Lanes entailed no major physical mod- lanes from the remaining flow of freeway traffic. Im ifications or construction on the freeway itself, plementation of the Diamond Lanes was accompanied by they caused significant physical and emotional dis- the introduction of a variety of express bus services location among freeway drivers, public officials and the opening of three new Park-and-Ride lots in and other residents of Los Angeles, and generated Western Los Angeles.
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