Mixed Signals

Los Angeles’ latest solution to traffic congestion--the city’s first fully automated reversible lane--opened Tuesday, and it was about as easy to figure out as a new VCR.

On 4th Street, east of downtown, overhead signs flash green arrows and red Xs above traffic. If that’s not clear enough, motorists can tune to a special radio channel--its frequency is posted along the street--broadcasting information about the center lane, open to inbound traffic during the morning rush hour and outbound traffic during the evening rush hour.

Still, some drivers appeared confused on their first trip through the mile-long maze of flashing signs, orange cones and waving traffic officers. Some chose to stay in the familiar, congested right lanes rather than venture across broken double yellow lines into the new, faster-moving reversible lane.

“It’s a shock to a lot of people,” said LAPD Officer Gary Miller, one of several motorcycle officers who helped to steer motorists through the traffic experiment. “It’s just a new concept for L.A.”

“You’re telling [motorists] to do something that is kind of foreign to their nature--to drive on the wrong side of a broken double yellow,” said Tim Crowder, senior transportation engineer for the city. “It takes a little coaching and teaching to get them used to it.”

The $1.7-million project is the result of a new strategy in which traffic engineers are looking for better ways to manage existing streets because of the financial, environmental and political obstacles to building or widening roads.

Reversible lanes have been used in other cities--on the Golden Gate Bridge and in Inglewood during events at the Forum, for example. Los Angeles officials said they did not have the funding until recently to test an electronic reversible lane.

If the 4th Street lane proves successful, the concept could be used on other streets, traffic engineers say.

But not every street is a candidate, because reversible lanes are effective only when there is a pronounced difference in the number of cars moving in each direction. “One of the problems we have in the city of Los Angeles is that there always is a lot of traffic in both directions,” said Richard Jaramillo, a principal traffic engineer for the city.

In fact, the 4th Street project is not Los Angeles’ first reversible lane. It is, however, the first mechanized one.

For years, workers have been going out every afternoon putting down orange cones for reversible lanes on Highland Avenue in Hollywood. But the fully automated 4th Street reversible lane is designed to save labor costs, plus allow city traffic engineers--with the push of a button--to adjust the reversible lane to traffic conditions. TV cameras on 4th Street allow traffic engineers to monitor conditions from the city’s traffic nerve center in City Hall.

The high-tech system got off to a decidedly low-tech start Tuesday.

The electronic signs are supposed to guide motorists when the reversible lane is open (green arrows) and closed (red Xs.) But city traffic engineers relied on old-fashioned methods to introduce the system. Traffic officers were stationed at every corner, where they waved at motorists attempting to make now-prohibited left turns during rush hour. Orange cones also were placed along the route to guide drivers.

By the end of this week or next, the traffic cones and officers will be gone, and motorists will be directed by the overhead signs--and the radio.

Some drivers welcomed the additional lane.

Edward Hargrave, transportation administrator for developer Maguire Thomas Partners, said he had no problem figuring out the reversible lane. “I figured it out pretty quickly,” he said. He has driven in reversible lanes in Washington, D.C., where “streets like that were real popular.”

Sandy Zamora, administrative assistant at Southern California Gas Co. who also drove 4th Street to work Tuesday, added, “I don’t think people knew they could use that lane.” But she said that when she drove in the lane, the ride “went real smoothly, so smooth that it felt like I was on the freeway.”

Fourth Street was chosen because it is heavily used by commuters as an entry into downtown off the Golden State and Santa Ana freeways.

The reversible lane, extending from the Golden State Freeway almost to Alameda Street, will be open to inbound traffic from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m. and to outbound traffic from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. weekdays.