More Environment, Energy & Transportation Policy Plays

High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes spread throughout most of America's largest metro areas in the 1980s and 1990s as an effort to encourage commuting by carpool and bus. But years later, the common spectacle of little-used and often abused HOV lanes adjoining jammed "regular" lanes is creating a backlash, with lane restrictions being loosened or eliminated in five states.

There is a better idea for dealing with this problem than revoking HOV lanes -- High Occupancy/Toll Lanes, or HOT lanes. The concept is simply to open up existing underutilized HOV lanes to voluntary toll traffic, reducing traffic congestion in the "regular" lanes, generating revenue for other transportation projects, and creating an option for commuters who are willing to pay -- or who urgently need -- to get down the road. (HOT lane tolls can and should also be used for the broader purpose of reducing traffic congestion and the pollution caused by stop-and-go traffic, while making transportation more affordable. In San Diego, tolls are used to subsidize public bus service, which promotes all three purposes.)

"People who use [HOT lanes] are happy, and people who don't also are happy, since it's taking some of the traffic that would be sitting in [their] lanes." -- Eric Pahlke, former director of transportation (now deputy executive director) of the San Diego Association of Governments

These HOT lanes currently operate in two parts of California (San Diego and Orange Counties); in Houston, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and in Utah. Additional projects are currently under consideration or in development in at least 10 other states including Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey, and Washington. They can be constructed inexpensively by putting electronic tollbooths in HOV lanes, adjacent to the lanes or in the highway medians. Commuters buy "smart cards" or "smart tags" by which they prepay tolls (HOV traffic, including buses, automatically get free use). In California, the system is more sophisticated, with both HOV and toll users obtaining state-issued electronic "transponders", called FasTrak, that register use and prepaid tolls. This avoids the traffic delays involved with tollbooths.

Another advantage of HOT lanes is that private firms can be used to finance, develop, maintain, and operate them. Strong public-private partnerships and the accompanying enabling legislation are keys to the success of the development and implementation of HOT lanes. In Virginia, Gov. Tim Kaine announced plans to work with private sector partners to study the feasibility of HOT lanes on the I-95, I-395, and the Capital Beltway (I-495) in Northern Virginia. The I-495 plan would add four HOT lanes to 14 miles of the Capital Beltway -- between Springfield and the Dulles Toll Road. In 2007, contracts for the I-495 project were finalized allowing for construction to begin in Spring 2008. In Arizona, where the U.S. Department of Transportation conducted a HOT lane feasibility study back in 2002, Gov. Janet Napolitano has been looking into novel ways of speeding up highway projects with the help of toll financing, private activity bonds, and public-private partnerships.

The Orange County, Calif., "91 Express Lanes" project, which opened in late 1995, is one of four private toll road ventures permitted by legislation passed in 1989. Project development and operating procedures are delineated in a franchise agreement signed by the state and the facility's initial operator, the California Private Transportation Company (the Orange County Transportation Authority has run the program since 2003). Four HOT lanes (two in each direction) were built in the median of State Route 91, an extremely congested, eight-lane freeway. The amount of the toll varies by time of day to ensure that traffic flows smoothly. To keep the lanes free of congestion at rush hour, express lane tolls have been raised more than seven times since 1995, now costing drivers carrying no passengers $3.70 to $10.00 during peak travel times on the busiest stretches. It is estimated that drivers save an average of 12 minutes in commuting time. In contrast, the HOT lanes in Houston are not open to single occupant vehicles. For three-passenger cars the HOT lane is toll-free, but cars with only two people pay $2.00 to $3.00, depending on the time of day.

Unlike the California 91 Express Lanes, a new tollroad, the South Bay Expressway, was built as a public/private financial partnership between the State of California and California Transportation Ventures Incorporated (CTV) opening in late 2007 in San Diego County. This new 12.5 mile road stretches from SR-54, near the Sweetwater Reservoir, to SR-905 in Otay Mesa, near the U.S./Mexico border. An estimated 200,000 vehicles per day will travel through this section that will greatly reduce traffic congestion on local streets. Opened as a four-lane highway, the project is designed with a future scope for construction of a six to eight-lane highway plus future carpool lanes and transit facilities. The tollroad will utilize electronic toll collection technologies which include "FasTrak" electronic transponders. Tolls are based on the distance traveled and the number of axles on the vehicle ranging from 75 cents to $3.50. With reduced drive-time for commuters, South Bay Expressway will offer customers complimentary roadside assistance, including help when drivers are out of gas, need fluids, break down, or get a flat tire.

Studies show that the public generally supports HOT lanes. In the Washington, D.C., area in particular, 58 percent of residents approve of the lanes, according to a 2005 ABC News/Washington Post survey. However, some oppose them on equity grounds, claiming they would represent "Lexus Lanes" where commuters who can afford tolls receive an unfair advantage over their less-affluent fellow citizens (this is actually an argument against any toll roads, not just HOT lanes). But studies of HOT lanes have shown that a representative mix of commuters use them, not just the wealthy. Moreover, commuters in the regular lanes benefit from reduced congestion. And finally, it is low-to-moderate income commuters who most often encounter the kind of work or family emergencies that can be eased by the ability to occasionally buy a quick commute.

HOT lanes could actually save the HOV experiment by moving traffic onto underutilized roads, and at the same time generate revenues for public transportation, low-income transit subsidies, or other progressive initiatives.

Resources For Action

California legislation, Assembly Bill 680, 1989
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/paffairs/about/toll/ab680.htm

California's new legislation, AB 1467 (Nunz) and SB 521 (Runner).
www.dot.ca.gov/hq/innovfinance/sitemap.htm

Minneapolis PASS Express Lanes
www.mnpass.org

Overview of the California project
www.dot.ca.gov/hq/paffairs/about/toll/status.htm

Orange County, Calif., "91 Express Lanes" project
www.91expresslanes.com

Overview of Houston METRO's Katy Freeway "QuickRide" program
http://www.hou-metro.harris.tx.us/

South Bay Expressway
http://southbayexpressway.com/

Road Traffic Technology -- State Route 125 South, San Diego County, CA
http://www.roadtraffic-technology.com/
projects/stateroute125/

Utah's Express Lanes
http://www.roadtraffic-technology.com/
projects/stateroute125/

"A Guide for HOT Lane Development," Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, March 2003
www.itsdocs.fhwa.dot.gov/JPODOCS/REPTS_TE/13668.html

"Governor Awards $10 Million Loan for I-95 'Hot' Lane Project" Governor Tim Kaine, Commonwealth of Virginia
www.governor.virginia.gov/MediaRelations/NewsReleases/viewRelease.cfm?id=237

"Capital Beltway High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) Lanes PPTA Project"
www.virginiadot.org/projects/hot_495.asp

Additional Reading

"Idea of the Week: HOT Lanes," DLC, June 1, 2001
www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=3411
&kaid=131&subid=207

Robert W. Poole Jr. and C. Kenneth Orski, "HOT Lanes: A Better Way to Attack Urban Highway Congestion," CATO Today's Commentary, June 8, 2000
www.cato.org/dailys/06-08-00.html

Robert D. Atkinson, "The Role of Road Pricing in Reducing Traffic Congestion," Testimony before the Joint Economic Committee, May 6, 2003
www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?contentid=251568&knlgAreaID=107&subsecid=900034

Robert D. Atkinson, "Getting Unstuck: Three Big Ideas to Get Americans Moving Again," Progressive Policy Institute, December 10, 2002
www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?contentid=251092
&knlgAreaID=107&subsecid=900034

Contacts

Houston METRO
cp02@ridemetro.org

Jeffrey Ingles
Innovative Finance Manager
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)
1120 N Street, Suite 3500, MS-24
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 654-3099
(916) 654-4375 (Fax)
jeffrey_ingles@dot.ca.gov
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/innovfinance/