CHP Guard of Tollways Questioned

It may be a far cry from Checkpoint Charlie, but a recommendation to extend the practice of posting CHP cruisers at main entrances to Orange County’s beleaguered toll roads has some transportation officials upset by the message it’s sending.

On Wednesday, a committee of the Transportation Corridor Agencies recommended that the toll authority extend its $75,000 annual contract with the CHP, so that officers can hunt down toll violators. While officers have netted the toll authority roughly $14,000 a month during a pilot patrol program this year, some authority members say the added police presence gives the toll authority a belligerent image.

“We’ve got the CHP standing there like the military, and it’s like we’re saying, ‘Once you go through, we’re going to stick it to you,’ � said Irvine Mayor Christina L. Shea, a member of the agencies’ operations and finance committee. “It doesn’t look good.�

The CHP officers, according to officials, have been hired to cite motorists who try to foil the cash-strapped toll authority. Specifically, the contract calls for two CHP cruisers to patrol main toll plazas and ramps in search of drivers who blow through FasTrak lanes without the required debit transponder, or who try to obscure their license plates to avoid being photographed as they pass through toll lanes without paying.

Toll officials also have asked the CHP to check motorists whose vehicles bear paper license tags. Unlike regular license plates, which allow the toll authority to mail tickets to the vehicle’s owner, the paper tags are not as easily traced.

Although the CHP patrols the county’s toll roads to enforce the speed limit and other motor vehicle laws, patrolling the toll plazas and ramps is a special duty that costs $64 per hour per cruiser.

From January to April of this year, CHP officers patrolling the San Joaquin Hills, Eastern and Foothill toll roads wrote 300 citations and warnings for missing or improperly mounted transponders, 120 tickets or warnings for missing license plates and 15 tickets or warnings for obscured license plates, toll authorities said.

Shea was joined in her opposition to the CHP contract by Dana Point Councilman William L. Ossenmacher, who said many motorists had complained to him that they were being ticketed for speeding. Ossenmacher suggested that CHP officers are bound to write more speeding tickets while they were looking for toll violators.

“I personally believe the CHP presence we’re funding has been a detriment to road usage,� Ossenmacher said. “People are trying to capture minutes by using the road . . . yet they’re getting ticketed.�

Toll authorities said they had no figures for speeding tickets on toll roads.

Ultimately, only Shea and Ossenmacher voted against the proposal, which will be considered by the full board of the Transportation Corridor Agencies next week. Fellow committee members said they were heartened by the presence of additional CHP officers.

“There are some of us who feel glad to see them,� San Juan Capistrano Mayor Collene Campbell said.

Laguna Hills Mayor Joel Lautenschleger said toll users also looked favorably on the added patrols. “They’re happy that people going over 90 and 100 are being stopped,� he said.

In other business Wednesday, committee members recommended that the full board approve design plans for eight cellular telephone antennas along the Eastern and Foothill toll roads. The towers are intended to improve spotty mobile telephone coverage along the route.

The design of five of the towers, however, sparked protest among some committee members, who called them alien looking and inappropriate for the rural landscape of the toll road. The controversial towers appear as 125-foot tall, tapering red spires.

“This looks like a monstrosity,� said county Supervisor Todd Spitzer. Despite similar objections, the committee recommended that the full board approve the design, in part because the design represented more than two years of committee compromises. Two other towers will resemble bell towers and one other will resemble a gantry.

Committee members also signed off on an upcoming advertising campaign aimed at increasing ridership along the toll roads. The ads, which will run in newspapers, on radio and in direct mailings, promote use of the toll roads by suggesting that time saved in commutes will improve users’ lives.

One of the ads, which will begin running in three to four weeks, features a photograph of a conference table and bears the caption: “Twenty-three minutes ago they wanted to know what you thought.�