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HOV to HOT Highway Lanes

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Unblocking the Box


March 2012

By Robert Poole

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Read More: http://reason.com/archives/2012/02/22/unblocking-the-box


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The success of HOV-to-HOT conversions, and the demonstrated ability of private firms to raise large sums based on projected revenues from such projects, has stimulated activity in several of the most congested metro areas.

Atlanta. After several years of study, the Georgia Department of Transportation in December 2009 adopted a $16 billion plan to add express toll lanes to nearly all the metro area’s freeways. The first project, built by a public-private partnership similar to those adding capacity on the Capital Beltway and in Dallas/Fort Worth, will be on the I-75 and I-575, just outside the I-285 ring road (known locally as the Perimeter). Separately, the local toll agency is converting HOV lanes into HOT lanes on a 15-mile stretch of I-85.

Miami. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) added one lane each way when it converted HOV lanes into HOT lanes on I-95 in 2008. Where there was previously a single congested HOV lane in each direction, there are now two variably priced express lanes, which have brought major congestion relief (as well as faster and more reliable express bus service). FDOT has embraced a public-private partnership to rebuild I-595 in Fort Lauderdale, adding three reversible express toll lanes to this congested east-west commuter route. FDOT is also studying a complete network of such lanes for the three-county metro area.

Houston. The local toll agency financed the addition of two HOT lanes each way as part of the complete reconstruction of the Katy Freeway, which opened to traffic in 2008. Houston Metro, the local transit agency, is in the process of converting HOVs into HOTs on five freeways. Texas DOT is considering a public-private partnership for much of a planned outer beltway, the Grand Parkway.

Phoenix. The Arizona legislature passed public-private partnership legislation for transportation in 2009. The Arizona Department of Transportation and the metropolitan planning organization for greater Phoenix are developing plans for a number of HOT lanes in the region, most of which are expected to be privately financed and developed.

Los Angeles. Southern California, the longtime congestion capital of the United States, until recently had only one express toll project, the landmark 10-mile 91 Express Lanes in Orange County. But Los Angeles County is now converting HOV lanes on the Harbor and San Bernardino freeways into HOT lanes. The metropolitan planning agency is considering plans for a region-wide network of such lanes. Projects are in the planning or development stages in Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. Current plans call for using public-private partnerships to add several missing links to the region’s freeway system, including a five-mile toll tunnel on I-710 (beneath South Pasadena) and the planned 63-mile High Desert Corridor in northern Los Angeles County.

San Francisco. Although no public-private partnership proposals have yet surfaced, the Bay Area has opened two HOT lanes in the East Bay and has several more under development in Silicon Valley. Its metropolitan planning organization was one of the first in the nation to include a region-wide network of HOT lanes in its long-term transportation plan.

Seattle. The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) reintroduced toll financing in the Puget Sound region a decade ago for the second span of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Two other major projects—a toll tunnel to replace the structurally unsound Alaskan Way Viaduct and a new toll bridge to replace the SR 520 floating bridge—are under way. The legislature may allow a long-term public-private concession for WSDOT’s $2 billion project to add express toll lanes to about 40 miles of I-405 in Renton, Bellevue, and Redmond.

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It's easier to implement in warm environments that hardly get any snow, because they can put those plastic barriers that bend as a car goes over it. This allows cars to get out of the lane if there is an accident or incident up ahead. Going through these barriers at slow speeds, does not damage your car, but going through them at high speeds will.

In areas with snow, this poses quite a problem for snow plows, and would most likely result in a bunch of these plastic barrier polls being ripped out by plows.
 
Hmm.... I hope that does not give our authorities an idea to start charging for 401 Express lanes...
 
Hmm.... I hope that does not give our authorities an idea to start charging for 401 Express lanes...
Why not ... the highway is useless to get across the city because of the congestion. It would save a lot of time if they tolled lanes that actually moved. Say $1/km or something ...
 
Why not ... the highway is useless to get across the city because of the congestion. It would save a lot of time if they tolled lanes that actually moved. Say $1/km or something ...

And built a subway/LRT under/in the middle of the 401 with that money.
 
I don't find that the HOV lanes help all that much. When somebody is trying to merge back in to general traffic to exit somewhere, you invariably get a slow down in the HOV lane.

Personally, I go with tolling the entire 401 Express. Or if they are going to bring back plate taxes and have it only for the 416, then let them toll the collectors so that the 905ers can also share some of the pain that comes with car ownership in Toronto.
 
I don't find that the HOV lanes help all that much. When somebody is trying to merge back in to general traffic to exit somewhere, you invariably get a slow down in the HOV lane.

Personally, I go with tolling the entire 401 Express. Or if they are going to bring back plate taxes and have it only for the 416, then let them toll the collectors so that the 905ers can also share some of the pain that comes with car ownership in Toronto.

I would be up for tolling the 401 Express Lanes. I'd gladly pay $1/km to bypass some of that congestion.

Only downside though is that the exit to the collectors is sometimes a few kms before the actual offramp to get off onto the surface street, and the congestion in the Collectors would be much worse, so it would take forever to get from the Express off the highway.

The biggest complication would be the stretch between the 427 and Islington, where the 401 isn't split into collector/express. That section would need to be upgraded in order to make it possible to toll the Express from Mississauga to Pickering.

Although I would reduce the off-peak tolling rate to something like $0.25/km, so that the collectors weren't congested 24/7.
 
The other thing that I would really like to see, and something that I haven't seen anyone else propose, is link the tolling system with the Presto system. Here's how it would work:

They would add 2 extra fields into the Presto Card registration, where you would input your license plate, and your car's make/year. The tolling would then be linked to your Presto card, where it would be deducted from the same purse that you pay your transit fares from. This would take advantage of the auto-reload feature.

The other thing that it would do is it would allow every toll user to also get a Presto card (if they want the deals on tolls). This means that if they want to take transit occasionally, everything is already set up for them. They'd be more likely to use transit that way.

Without a Presto card, it would be charged to your drivers license, and you would be charged a video toll charge (thus the incentive to get a Presto card to avoid that extra charge).

Separate but somewhat related, I think that the same technology should be applied to paying for parking at GO parking lots. The same video toll setups would be put at each entrance/exit to GO parking lots, and parking payments would automatically be deducted from your Presto purse.
 

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