COSTA MESA UNPLUGGED:

Assemblyman Van Tran (R-68th) has never been a guy who shies away from shameless promotion. And so in recent days we’ve had him parading around, blowing party horns and tossing confetti skyward in celebration of his most recent legislative triumph: the signing into law of Assembly Bill 2906.

The brand name is “The Orange County Traffic Relief Act of 2008.” And who wouldn’t favor that?

Well, let’s think about it.

In one sense, Tran deserves some credit. AB 2906 actually repeals a law instead of giving birth to a new one. It dumps a provision in the California Vehicle Code that required a 4-foot buffer zone between carpool lanes and the regular mixed-flow freeway lanes.

Nixing the buffer zone, according to a statement from Tran’s office, “…will be a dramatic benefit to commuters in central Orange County. By eliminating wasteful regulations we are able to add an additional lane to State Route 55 without new construction.”

Now I’ll be the first to admit that navigating the 55 these days can be something like slogging through tar in snow shoes.

But while adding additional lanes by removing the buffer zone may mean happier days for central Orange County motorists, the added capacity may bring even more traffic nightmares to Costa Mesa and probably Newport Beach, too.

Here’s why: Couple the lane addition created by Tran’s bill with Project F of the Renewed Measure M, and you’ll find we’re on the brink of significantly boosting through-put on the 55 between the 22 Freeway and the 405.

Project F is an estimated $366 million project slated to add additional lanes to the 55 to “increase highway capacity and reduce congestion,” according to the Orange County Transportation Authority’s website.

Sounds prudent. After all, OCTA says traffic volume on the 55 is expected to increase 13% to nearly 332,000 trips a day in the relatively near future.

The problem is a pretty large chunk of that increased traffic volume will trek beachward, right into that pinhole where the 55 hits the brakes at 19th Street in our beloved Goat Hill.

So what we potentially have with an expanded 55 between the 22 and the 405 is a bigger fire hose blasting more cars in a shorter period of time right down Costa Mesa’s gullet and on into Eastside neighborhoods and Newport Beach.

Now I suppose we could Velcro our hopes to all this visioning and outreach and study that’s revolving around seven alternatives OCTA is peddling about town to make the 55 terminus something a bit bigger than a hypodermic needle.

And indeed, it’s our only hope. That’s why guys like Tran and one of AB 2906’s co-authors — Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-70th) — need to get on the stick and make a fix of the 55 dam a high priority with Caltrans and OCTA.

It’s also why the platoons of just-say-no folks who live on the Eastside — the same people who stuck a broom stick in the spokes of the East 17th Street and Newport Boulevard improvement projects — need to link arms with downtown business owners and the city councils of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.

These groups need to pick a 55 terminus improvement solution and then march with pitchforks and torches to the front porches of our legislators, OCTA and Caltrans. Otherwise, Caltrans and OCTA will simply yawn and tell us it’s our problem.

The flood is coming, folks. And treading water is not an option.

BYRON DE ARAKAL is a former Costa Mesa parks and recreation commissioner. Readers can reach him at [email protected].