L.A. transportation officials approve letting solo drivers pay a toll to use carpool lanes

With no discussion, the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board today approved opening carpool lanes on the 10 and 110 freeways to solo motorists willing to pay a toll.

The charges will range from 25 cents per mile when traffic is light to $1.40 per mile during rush hours.

The idea is to use the so-called congestion-based pricing -- tolls that rise and fall in relation to the volume of traffic -- to keep individual motorists, carpools, van pools and buses in the high-occupancy lanes at a minimum speed of 45 mph, even during rush hour.

The demonstration project, which will be evaluated to see whether congestion is indeed reduced, has received a $210.6-million federal grant -- the largest of its type awarded to any city to date, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Caltrans and the MTA will convert existing carpool lanes to high-occupancy toll lanes on 14 miles of the 10 Freeway from Alameda Street to the 605 Freeway and on 11 miles of the 110 Freeway from Adams Boulevard to the Artesia Transit Center at 182nd Street.

A second toll lane will be added in both directions to the 10 Freeway. Plans also call for automated toll plazas, road improvements and additional transit services, including 57 clean-fuel buses that will operate along both highway corridors. The project, which is expected to create 7,000 jobs during construction, is scheduled to be completed by December 2010.

-- Dan Weikel

Comments

[Julia]

WHERE DO I SIGN UP?????

Worth it at almost any price.

[ace]

L.A. , your scrapping the bottom of the barrel. Good luck with your Obamanomic approach to solving your problems.

[sandra]

Ridiculous!

[Brad]

This is great! When will the 110fwy be widened?

[Michael]

Waste alert! 57 new buses?

Never in the last three years during my 70 minute commute from the South Bay to the Westside, have I seen a bus that is half full. I see lots of "double buses that are completely empty. I leave for work at 6:00 and leave for home at 3:00 - right in the middle of rush hour. Don't tell me we need to waste more money on buses!

Stop wasting my tax dollars!!!!!

[Jack Clover]

Great idea! Toll Roads are the way of the future, finally some innovation coming to Los Angeles!

[Samantha]

I have recently relocated to the Los Angeles area and long for the days of commuting on the 241 & 133 Toll Roads located in Orange County. Hopefully, the new L.A. lanes will run as smoothly. If so, life will be getting a whole lot better for people who don't mind paying a small price for added convenience and time savings!

[David]

When are they going to finish the 405????

[Roger Pariseau]

A better, more permanent, more useful fix would be to make all our freeways toll roads at quite high rates. Full rate for one driver, half rate for driver and adult passenger, free for driver plus two passengers. My idea is to get fewer vehicles on the roads; this idea doesn't do that -- gotta keep the construction rackets happy so all those campaign contributions get to our politicians, no?

[Jason]

Finally, a solution to the congestion problems that continue to dog L.A.. I hope the program is a success, and I hope they expand it. The money can be used to improve mass transit and infrastructure. Everyone should have the option to get where they need to go faster by paying more. Keeping all of us stuck in traffic benefits no one.

[Bill T]

Which part of FREEway do they not understand?

We paid to build and maintain the freeways with our gas tax dollars, now we pay again to actually USE them? and once they get used to the extra income, do you really think they'll back off on the fees? Especially after the HOV/Toll lane slows to a crawl with the other lanes. Face it, the vampire just stuck another tooth into your wallet.

[AJ]

Way to go LA now you can congest the carpool lanes too. We are a bunch of morons! We need to invest in public transportation that works. We need to change they way we approach getting to and from work and how far we live from work. We are a culture which is addicted to the automobile. Doesn't matter how you power it oil or electric it is a source of many of our issues.

[FJ]

"L.A. , your scrapping the bottom of the barrel. Good luck with your Obamanomic approach to solving your problems."

This approach originated many years back with the libertarian Reason Foundation.

http://reason.org/areas/topic/toll-roads

[Stephen]

This won't be worth anything until they can remove the ridiculous double yellow lines on the carpool lanes. It allows one dumb slow driver to reduce the carpool lane to a crawl, locking everyone in there while every other lane in the freeway to flow.

[Media Scatter]

Taxes! The answer to everyone's problems in the new era of government!

[shocked]

Do they realize that it will take longer than they propose and that traffic will get significantly worse before getting better, IF it even does get better? I live off of the 405 and 10, and they have said for years that the construction is going to be a new carpool lane and wider freeway for better traffic. All I know is a trip that once only took me 10 minutes now takes 45

[Rob M.]

How absolutely absurd! The original intent of a carpool lane was to increase carpool rider share, AND reduce traffic in the other lanes. Of course, originally it was proposed to just make the carpool lane another lane, but the point was to favor carpooling. Now, since the carpool lanes are not as crowded as the regular lanes (apparently meaning there weren't enough carpoolers, but in actuality there were and the lanes actually moved), and to generate a new revenue stream for the MTA, they want to add money-advantaged non carpoolers to the lane. So why not just add another lane in the first place? I guess that was too easy. The carpool lane will no longer be used for the original purpose, the carpool lanes still have the limited access policy and now they will be even more crowded. At least those with money will think they are just a bit more special and can now ride in the carpool lane. Bravo, MTA, you are proving how utterly stupid your patchwork thinking and policies are.

[John]

Obviously, the yahoos in charge have never studied the 91 freeway with its "lexus lanes." You have two lanes of traffic zipping by while the others are more congested because working folks can't actually afford to pay the tolls. This is NOT a solution, it will on exacerbate the problem. Getting more cars of the road is the solution. Encourage carpools and public transportation!

[ray]

Agree with Roger Pariseau's approach. Let's get cars off the road, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, clean up the air. Making all freeways toll roads, and soon, is the only mechanism we have to force people to car pool. As Roger says, full rate for one, half rate for two, free for three

[Richard S]

OK, let me get this straight. Let's say I'm in downtown LA and want to head to the airport, and I'm in a bit of a hurry. I can pay a toll to use the carpool lane on the southbound 110, but if I try to take the flyover ramp to the westbound 105 I am suddenly subject to a very expensive ticket? So I have to maneuver through heavy traffic to get out the the carpool lane and take the regular 110 to 105 ramp. This is a joke.

And there is no way to implement a FastPass type system because how could the system tell when there is only one person in the car?

Sorry, but this is a non-starter. It's a joke. Not a very funny one, either. I wish we could just go to the system they use in the Bay Area, where anyone can use the carpool lane except during peak hours of 5-9 and 3-7. It's easy and it works.

[stewart scholl]

adding more lanes will add more cars, why not forbid all cars
on those freeways that are 2 years or older during rush hours.

[Sarah]

These toll/carpool lanes are excellent down in the San Diego area and they do improve the traffic. However proposed fees for the LA ones are extremely high, when you can do the 12 mile stretch in San Diego county for $0.80 period in the 8am hour. Not 25 cents per mile. But would gladly use the toll lanes to get around faster.

[Ben]

Ace - "Obamanomics"? You might consider a Google search before making Obama-haters everywhere look foolish. This offer from the Feds of money for buses in exchange for testing congestion-priced tolls for singles in the carpool lanes came from the Bush administration well before Obama's election. The very concept is an application of market-based pricing, something I hear conservatives are fairly enchanted with. (In fact, they were also putting up incentives for a congestion pricing scheme in Manhattan. Bloomberg was a fan, but too many others weren't.)

[EthanQ]

If the people of Los Angeles allow this to happen, there's a new name for this area, instead of the Southland, it's Suckerland.

In Boston, the Mass Turnpike from Boston to Rte 128 (the heaviest traffic) is 14.7 miles and $2.50 eastbound and $6.00 westbound for $8.50 round trip. Here, the 14 miles on the 10 in rush hour will cost you $39.60. Multiply that by 22 days in a work month and that's $862.40

So, while the rest of us sweat on the freeway, the Richie Riches in the Mercedes and BMWs get to ride in the carpool lanes. Who said the California dream is dead?

[mark]

most stupid idea ever!!

the idea of carpool lanes is to get people out of their cars!! not to let the rich or affluent buy their way to convenience by not carpooling yet paying to access the privileges of carpooling!!

This federal money should be spent improving and expanding light rail as well as other forms of mass transit in the LA basin. Expanding our freeways will only encourage more people to drive. There will never be enough freeway capacity for every commuter to drive their own car in LA. This idea is completely unsustainable. This is the case in every other major city in the world, so why certain drivers and administrators in LA don't understand that simple fact is beyond me.