More HOV lanes for highways

[Dilla]

I was just speaking with a friend about how more carpooling lanes would be nice. Will it be a large undertaking for the police to enforce these rules?

From the Star:

May 24, 2007 01:40 PM
Tess Kalinowski
Staff Reporter
Queen's Park has unveiled a long-term plan that will put carpooling lanes on virtually all provincial highways in the Toronto region.

Ontario already has High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes on Highway 403 and the 404, and is building them on the QEW and Highway 427by 2011.

But yesterday it unveiled a third, 2017-and-beyond phase to its HOV strategy that would interconnect existing HOV lanes and extend them into the growing Peel, Durham, Halton and York Regions.

"HOV lanes on our highways are a triumphant success," Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield told reporters at the government's Downsview traffic operations centre this morning. (Thurs.)

The southbound Highway 404 lanes that extend from Highway 7 to the 401 already shave 17 minutes off that 11-kilometre stretch, she said.

A network of HOV lanes is part of a "holistic" transportation plan that also supports greater use of public transit, encouraging more people to share a ride or take the bus because they'll reach their destination faster, she said.

Citing the need to accommodate another two million vehicles in the Toronto area in the next 25 years, Cansfield also announced the government will expand carpool parking lots so more commuters can connect to transit.

 

[ShonTron]

Now if only the government had the guts to convert a lane or two on the 401.

All of the HOV lanes will be highway widening projects. The ones on the QEW, between Highway 403 and 403 will be useful, though (and I realize it will be a widening project as well).

 

[ShonTron]

Here's the MTO's plan:

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/traveller/hov/plan2007.htm

The maps show that that the HOV lanes are tied to highway widening, and they will often not connect to other HOV lanes. The 400's lanes will only start at Major Mackenzie on the south, because they are not going to give up a lane to HOV farther south. The 401 will only get HOV lanes from the 410 west and Brock Road east, again for the same reasons. It will not be an effective system, except in the long term along the QEW.

 

[yin_yang]

anyone a bit irked by their decision to build the HOV's in chunks and not one highway at a time? from their plan, it looks like they want to give HOV riders ecstacy and then heartbreak as they reach the end of the lane a few kilometres down the road...

 

[CDL.TO]

Quite right, Sean. It seems to be a way to justify highway widenings.

It's quite ironic. GO was started up partially because it was cheaper than trying to widen the constrained QEW. Now here we are 40 years later, car traffic travelling in to the core hasn't increased much and GO is considered to be a runaway success. But yet we're currently building and planning to widen the QEW and GO is still running the same hourly service as it was in 1967.

 

[Degnaw]

GO is still running an hourly service on the Lakeshore west corridor? I thought they have 15 minute intervals during rush hour.

 

[Canuck]

Enforcement of HOV lanes on Don Mills & Eglinton would be nice. Eglinton especially.

 

[CDL.TO]

GO is still running an hourly service on the Lakeshore west corridor? I thought they have 15 minute intervals during rush hour.

Daytime, evenings, and weekends service is hourly as it was when GO first started. GO originally had a rush hour service of every 20 minutes, which has improved since then.

 

[arnold]

its a shame the ontario govnt isn't implementing these HOV lanes in a more logical fashion since they're such a powerful motivator to carpool.

after living down here in southern california for the past few years, i can honestly say that i plan my trips up to LA and orange county around the HOV lanes. i wouldn't dare attempt to drive up to LAX at peak times (which is most of the day) if i was travelling alone. i've found that a trip up to LAX or santa monica from san diego in average traffic takes three hours if you're lucky. but you can easily shave an hour off of that if you're using the HOV lanes.

in fact, on my last visit to TO a few months ago, i found myself dreaming of HOV lanes on the 401 while stuck in heavy traffic with a carload of family, trying to get across the top of the city. with HOV lanes, we would have moved along basically unhindered. i guess i've grown used to the rewards of carpooling...

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

why can't they put HOV lanes on the 401 (toronto)? i'm sure there are many cars that have more than 3 passengers that use the highway everyday so it wouldn't take away that much capacity.

i know it's a little complicated with the express/collector system but it's not impossible.

 

[interchange42]

The Gov't seems to think that people will riot if 1 lane is taken away from regular traffic for the exclusive use of carpoolers.

I'll bet that pressure will grow to do just that.

It's all a matter of timing, and I'll bet the provincial Liberals are polling their asses off, and waiting for the tide to turn. Enlightened gov't announcements of HOV lanes on the 401 will follow the public's lead.

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[yin_yang]

The Gov't seems to think that people will riot if 1 lane is taken away from regular traffic for the exclusive use of carpoolers.

I'll bet that pressure will grow to do just that.

It's all a matter of timing, and I'll bet the provincial Liberals are polling their asses off, and waiting for the tide to turn. Enlightened gov't announcements of HOV lanes on the 401 will follow the public's lead.

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are you saying that the public doesn't support HOV lanes? all the media that i have seen portray it as a positive thing.

 

[ShonTron]

Yes, but you'll get the CAA, the Ontario Truckers' Association, many 905ers, suburban councillors all up in arms. The ones, right now, who would support conversions would be drowned out if a gutless provincial government was in charge.

It's like public transit - many people support more public transit, so that others (not them!) will use it and reduce congestion. HOV lanes are great, but if they take a lane from me?

 

[yin_yang]

Yes, but you'll get the CAA, the Ontario Truckers' Association, many 905ers, suburban councillors all up in arms. The ones, right now, who would support conversions would be drowned out if a gutless provincial government was in charge.

It's like public transit - many people support more public transit, so that others (not them!) will use it and reduce congestion. HOV lanes are great, but if they take a lane from me?

i doubt anyone would be able to stop the city if they decided to build them. come on, this issue is so insignificant. sending out a mass email to everyone explaining that this will get sooner or later ANYWAY should do it...and that's bordering on phsychotic. doubt anyone actually cares if HOV lanes are put in. no matter how stupid some people are...faith has to be put in people's ability to reason. just start building the lanes, watch the media portray it positively and there will hardly be a protest. it can be done as cheaply as doing this:

drivers here drive so courteously to the point of being annoying and slow, that would probably be the best option...wouldn't need a barrier

 

[interchange42]

Most drivers obey HOV lane restrictions. Many drivers would be happy to see an HOV lane on the 401 replacing the inside express lane whether or not they could use it on a particular day. The percentage who would be happy though would depend on how bad traffic would get during rush hour. I'd love to see what would happen. I'd be interested in how much usage the lane would get, what percentage were cheating, how backed up the other lanes would be, how many people's driving habit would change over a period of time. I say go ahead, let's try it.

However, yinyang, the government must think that there would be too much outcry about losing a lane to HOV right now, otherwise they would go ahead and do it now. They would. They just frickin' friggin' would.

Some day they will.

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