Staggering Freeway Congestion

One of the most memorable things about the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles was the flow of freeway traffic.

Instead of the expected jams, the freeways, surprisingly, moved as swiftly and smoothly as the athletes. Despite a reported 11% increase in freeway traffic during the Olympics, there were dramatic reductions in congestion.

One major factor contributing to those reductions was the staggered starting times used by many employers to ease the traditional commute-hour crunch. Instead of having everyone report in at 8 a.m. or 9 a.m., employers stretched starting times over several hours.

Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder thinks that approach makes sense all the time and would like to see more employers use it. So does the rest of the county board which, at Wieder’s urging last Tuesday, adopted the policy and ordered county departments and agencies to develop plans by Oct. 30 to put as many of the county’s employees as possible on the staggered work schedule.

The supervisors’ action does more than merely set a good example for other government agencies and private industry. About seven out of every 10 of the county’s 12,000 employees commutes during the peak 7 a.m.-to-8 a.m. commute-hour traffic. Putting them on the road in a staggered schedule should greatly ease traffic congestion, especially on freeways that converge on the county seat in downtown Santa Ana.

Orange County has fewer freeway miles per resident than many other major urban areas of comparable size. As Wieder has noted, in the last 10 years the county population has grown by about 400,000 residents, but just two miles of freeway have been added to the system. At that rate, gridlock is inevitable without alternative transportation policies.

Additional traffic lanes are needed, but there are not enough funds to build them. Staggered work hours won’t add an inch of freeway space. But they can, at no cost to anyone, make the existing system faster and less crowded. Other benefits are reductions in tardiness and air pollution. They are all persuasive reasons for business and industry to join the county board in staggering work hours whenever possible.