Roads: HOV lanes

[James]

My biggest issue with HOV lanes is that they simply aren't enforced. Sure, law enforcement officers are a bit more vigilant these days as a result of the Pan Am Games, but in normal situations, I routinely see a large proportion of vehicles driving in an HOV lane with just a single person in it! Although I've never kept a formal log, it's generally 1 in every 3 or 4 cars in an HOV lane that I see just a single occupant. I've written to the city about it and they assured me these drivers are in violation of the rules and can be ticketed. Great, but I rarely see anyone get pulled over for it, which is frustrating for all those following the rules of the road who are stuck in traffic.

 

[11th]

My worry is that this experience will poison people's perception of HOV lanes. The Province has previously widened highways to implement HOV, but this is the first time (correct me if I'm wrong) that HOV is being installed on an existing lane. For many people who haven't experienced them before, the Province runs the risk of associating HOV with congestion.

I also don't understand why they had to up it to 3+ for the Pan Am Games. Most 2+ HOV lanes flow fine, even during rush hour. Upping it to 3+ just puts more people in the general lanes, even if they are actually carpooling with 1 extra person.

The province invested nothing other than paint for the new temporary HOV lanes. If there were smart, they should try their best to widen the roads to add in the lane rather than replacing an existing general lane. What frustrate drivers the most is them taking out a general lanes at sections of highways which was already at capacity or at the limit (i.e. QEW east of Oakville).

They should also change the hours for the lanes. 5am - 11pm offers no way for people to plan around their schedule. 7am to 9pm would've made more sense.

 

[wopchop]

My biggest issue with HOV lanes is that they simply aren't enforced. Sure, law enforcement officers are a bit more vigilant these days as a result of the Pan Am Games, but in normal situations, I routinely see a large proportion of vehicles driving in an HOV lane with just a single person in it! Although I've never kept a formal log, it's generally 1 in every 3 or 4 cars in an HOV lane that I see just a single occupant. I've written to the city about it and they assured me these drivers are in violation of the rules and can be ticketed. Great, but I rarely see anyone get pulled over for it, which is frustrating for all those following the rules of the road who are stuck in traffic.

Honestly, I've seen more traffic police in the past two days than all-year long. Outside of these Games, road enforcement is pretty much nonexistent, for the most part.

 

[cplchanb]

Well this morning there were a row of police cruiser bikes just south of the 404/401 interchange doing....absolutely nothing.... :/

 

[Translude15]

My biggest issue with HOV lanes is that they simply aren't enforced.

You don't drive the 403 very often do you? Lol

 

[Markster]

That they've gone with HOV 3+ definitely means that the lanes will continue to seem pretty empty.

It's a tough sell to get a public not used to carpooling (i.e. regular DVP and Gardiner commuters) to find not one, but two extra people for their car. From a Pan-Am games perspective, it makes sense, because they don't want to start the lanes off as HOV 2+, only to switch the rules in 2 weeks when the games start.
From a carpool public relations perspective, it's terrible. People are going to be angry, assume that it's impossible to carpool because of the high barrier to finding 2 other people with the same origin/destination, and then even when the lanes change to HOV 2+, they'll already be stuck in their resistance to change, and will just stick it out the 3 more weeks until they're gone, at which point they will declare victory over what they will most assuredly call the "worst thing ever to happen in history".

Wesnesday, August 19th, the day they stop being HOV lanes, will probably be the best flowing commute Toronto has seen in years. Between people on vacations, people still carpooling, and people still taking alternate means like GO or TTC, the extra lane capacity opening up that day will probably handle the remaining cars like a breeze.

 

[Tuscani01]

Wesnesday, August 19th, the day they stop being HOV lanes, will probably be the best flowing commute Toronto has seen in years. Between people on vacations, people still carpooling, and people still taking alternate means like GO or TTC, the extra lane capacity opening up that day will probably handle the remaining cars like a breeze.

I hope it is a complete shit show that day.

 

[hawc]

Cars are bad. The less people driving the better. We need to do everything we can to discourage driving. The more miserable we can making commuting the less likely people are to drive. Which is good. So that said, these HOV lanes should become permanent. We need to make driving so painful that people are forced to car pool where the wouldn't otherwise. If all these selfish drivers would put two more people in their car instead of just commuting all by themselves they'd have nothing to complain about, they'd be in the HOV lanes. Ideally we'd remove highways like the DVP and Gardiner entirely and replace with transit and bike lanes. But until them I'm so enjoying the 2 months of HOV hell that will snap drivers out of their dependency on the car. Driving must be discouraged at every possible opportunity and this is a GREAT start!

 

[hawc]

I generally drive QEW. The eastbound QEW was horrendous this afternoon. Unfortunately I don't have much opportunity to carpool.

Yes you do! You just haven't tried hard enough. There are plenty of carpooling apps out there. You should definitely be able to find 2 other people heading your way. Or take the GO train. Or move closer to where you work. Commuters like you are what's contributing to climate change. Hopefully this will make you re-examine your selfish lifestyle and stop using up the earth's resources (while polluting the atmosphere) for your comfort. Consider this a wake up call for you and hundreds of thousands of other people that don't walk, cycle or take transit to work. There's no reason to own a car if you plan ahead.

 

[wopchop]

Yes you do! You just haven't tried hard enough. There are plenty of carpooling apps out there. You should definitely be able to find 2 other people heading your way. Or take the GO train. Or move closer to where you work. Commuters like you are what's contributing to climate change. Hopefully this will make you re-examine your selfish lifestyle and stop using up the earth's resources (while polluting the atmosphere) for your comfort. Consider this a wake up call for you and hundreds of thousands of other people that don't walk, cycle or take transit to work. There's no reason to own a car if you plan ahead.

You clearly didn't read a thing that I wrote, so fuck off with the personal attack.

I consider myself a pretty responsible person, environmentally speaking, and take the GO Train or the TTC when I can. But I work in construction. Meaning, I usually need to haul tools and material and equipment to job sites. Or from job site to job site. Please explain to me how the fuck I am supposed to do that on a train or on the bus. Obviously it doesn't happen all the time, so I figure out a way that I can take transit. But it doesn't always work that way. Usually I'm at 2 to 3 different sites on any given day. If they aren't close together (ie. not downtown), I drive, because I can't spend 2 to 3 hours during the working day commuting via transit from job site to job site. That doesn't make sense from a business perspective, which you don't seem to know a thing about.

So why don't you try reading what other people write and actually comprehend what they are saying. Then, try thinking bit before you start writing. That way you will avoid running your mouth and needlessly insulting people. From that post that you just made, my takeaway is that YOU are the extremely selfish person, who has zero understanding of some of the realities of the lives of other people.

 

[James]

Well this morning there were a row of police cruiser bikes just south of the 404/401 interchange doing....absolutely nothing.... :/

The 404 south HOV lane as it approaches the 401 interchange probably has the worst offenders, likely due to the sheer volume of traffic backed up from Finch all the way down past the 401. There seems to be really few genuine carpoolers travelling in this direction, making that open lane rather too enticing for too many motorists. That, coupled with the fact that I've actually never seen anyone pulled over on this stretch for misusing the HOV lane, and you have a recipe for blatant ignorance of the law.

 

[Megaton327]

Or move closer to where you work.

This is where I became 100% sure this person has no business opening their mouth. What a rich, spoiled, entitled brat! I wish we could all have the money to buy a nice big house right in the downtown core. Very rare though, I'll admit, to see such an elitist be anti-car...that's a new one.

 

[mpd618]

This isn't hard, and doesn't require guilt trips and insults:

1) Cars are a blight on our cities, making them unnecessarily dangerous and taking up scarce space.
2) With the way our metropolitan areas are built and planned, and the level of transit service available, cars are unavoidable for many people due to where they live or work.
3) Carpooling is extremely impractical for the vast majority of people due to the spread out nature of both ends of trips and due to how rigid it is.
4) Switching highway lanes to HOV makes it possible for buses to travel much faster and more reliably.
5) Faster buses cost less to operate and are more competitive with car travel, allowing and supporting higher frequency service - which makes them more attractive to use, etc.
6) The volume of car traffic in the city is reduced through more people choosing a much improved transit option.

 

[hawc]

What a rich, spoiled, entitled brat! I wish we could all have the money to buy a nice big house right in the downtown core.

I'm a rich spoiled brat for renting a basement apartment in Regent Park???

 

[Translude15]

I'm a rich spoiled brat for renting a basement apartment in Regent Park???

Just a thought, but maybe driving a car might open up your job opportunities, which in turn might get you out of that basement apartment.