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
EDITOR'S PICKS:
They should charge for all the traffic on the freeway at peak hours. The 110, 10, and 405 freeways are in horrible condition due to all the traffic and I don't think anyone ever realized how expensive roadways, cars and public transportation would turn out to be We act so entitled to free transportation. We might get it if we find the most efficient solution to our problems, but this new policy is not the answer. It will just cause more congestion on the roadways. If we want roads that work and traffic that moves, then we will all pay for it. Simple as that.
Posted by: RP | July 23, 2009 at 02:02 PM
As a daily carpooling user of the 110 carpool lane, I can't believe that my carpool partner and I will now be relegated back to the regular freeway lanes UNLESS we pay a toll. We tried a three-person carpool, and it was too awkward and difficult to make it work on a consistent basis. Now some wealthy person from the PV Peninsula will get to ride the lanes while we hardworking, double carpoolers are being punished for having done the right thing for the past few years. Ridiculous!
Posted by: VdV | July 23, 2009 at 02:02 PM
"adding more lanes will add more cars, why not forbid all cars
on those freeways that are 2 years or older during rush hours."
because those two year-old cars have been in the traffic jam all this time, numbskull!
The rates are simply too high.
Posted by: Tannim | July 23, 2009 at 02:10 PM
Gee! Why can't people read? The first 2 paragraphs are very clear....iIf you are carpooling you can still use the HOV lanes for free. You only pay if you are driving alone. Reading is Fundamental.
Posted by: BC | July 23, 2009 at 02:16 PM
how will a cop know you paid or violating the Carpool laws?? california goverment is to stupid to figure that one out..
Posted by: Ray Roker | July 23, 2009 at 02:21 PM
Too expensive. Too elitist.
Posted by: Lara | July 23, 2009 at 02:21 PM
This is just like Moscow... There, for a fee of something like $10,000, you can buy a light and siren and be exempt from traffic laws.
Posted by: James | July 23, 2009 at 02:21 PM
Not gonna help on 405 in Sepulveda Pass anyway, as carpool line is as slow as all the others.
Posted by: Dave | July 23, 2009 at 02:31 PM
What are the "highway corridors?" Are they related to the freeways?
Posted by: Collis Huntington | July 23, 2009 at 02:31 PM
They can even make more money if in that lane you can speed and use speed.
Love LA
Posted by: MHB | July 23, 2009 at 02:59 PM
I see it as a win win. As part of the agreement, the net revenues generated can only be reinvested within the corridors. So the wealthy get to buy in when there is space available. A big majority of that revenue will go back into the form of improved express transit service along the corridor and into Downtown. Existing carpoolers, vanpoolers, and transit users need to be aware that they will be unaffected. The $1.40/mile rate is designed not to boost revenue, but to manage the capacity. That's the whole concept of congestion pricing. If 25 cents/mile was charged all day, then existing carpoolers would see zero benefit in using the lanes because they would become overcrowded.
The problem with the 91 Express Lanes is they never implemented a transit component to provide an alternative. As a daily Metro user, I am looking forward to the improved transit frequency along the corridors. And hopefully people who aren't still so glued to their cars will give it a shot.
By the way, drivers have never paid their fair share for "freeway" construction and maintenance, not to mention the amount of air pollution we have in LA as a result. The federal gas tax hasn't been adjusted, not even for inflation, in twenty years.
Posted by: Stephen | July 23, 2009 at 03:00 PM
Gas taxes haven't come close to even keeping up with inflation - why do we pay so little in gas taxes?
I'd personally appreciate paying siginficantly more in gas taxes if the money was used for roads AND greater substity of public transportation. How many more working people (including me) would use a bus if the fare was only 50 cents?
I'm looking forward to the FREEWAY actuallly moving - even if it costs me more.
Posted by: David in Los Angeles | July 23, 2009 at 03:15 PM
The problem is human selfishness. For every one driver that allows me to merge into his lane, 10 will hurry off and block me from merging into their lane, for whatever reason. I'm guilty myself, because invariably, as I'm cruising along going the typical 75+ in the fast lane, invariably along comes some Sunday driver, right after entering the freeway, almost sideswiping everyone in the far right lines in their haste to settle themselves in front of me going 55 in the fast lane! You know the law states "Slower Traffic Keep Right!" No one should ever feel comfortable cruising in the fast lane! if you want slow comfortable driving, move to the right lanes! I would bet that by far the majority of traffic problems are the result of people so afraid to drive that they go to slow disrupting the natural flow of competent drivers, they should just stay off the road an get a ride!
Posted by: I AM AMERICA | July 23, 2009 at 03:17 PM
Driving slow in the fast lane is aggressive driving.
Posted by: michael | July 23, 2009 at 03:36 PM
My fantasy is still to be zooming down the median of the 405 in a bullet train watching all the motorists who couldn't bear to part with the "freedom" to sit in standstill traffic for hours every day.
Impossible dream?
Posted by: Ironman Carmichael | July 23, 2009 at 03:47 PM
Finally! This is a great idea! Drivers will finally be given the option of paying for time to fund transit and other projects! I hope to see more of this around Los Angeles!
Posted by: Juan | July 23, 2009 at 04:10 PM
It is quite unsettling that the taxpayer already paid for these carpool lanes...and those that carpool are going to be penalized because somebody can get away without doing the carpool and pay the fee. The only reason they are doing this is because the fed wouldn't give them the money for all those buses if they didn't convert them over! I have yet to ever be driving and see these buses at the least half full. What a joke! The goverment's solution to traffic is to make it so damn expensive to drive that the average citizen can't do it. Enough is enough!
Posted by: He who wishes he could move to Florida. | July 23, 2009 at 04:21 PM
Finally, it's about time we pay a little bit more to improve the quality of living in Los Angeles. I'm more than happy to pay my share so that I can spend less time on the road and more quality time at home. Driving is a privilege, not a right, and people should pay for whatever resources they use. When the road is "all you can eat", of course it's going to get congested like it is today. Much of YOUR tax dollars is wasted on building and maintaining roads for people who drive 10X more than you! It makes little sense that everyone is subsidizing traffic jams even if you're not in it.
One way to solve this is dilemma is to force everyone to pay like they do in New Jersey Turnpike and other parts of the countries.
Hopefully the extra funding will be used on long term projects like mass transit (hint: buses are not *real* mass transit). The way people live in Los Angeles is ridiculous, and drastic changes like this is welcomed.
Posted by: Kevin | July 23, 2009 at 04:21 PM
Th HOT Lane been tried in San Diego on the 15 where it has been a dubious success financially, and hasn't reduced traffic noticably. It has been tried on the 91, where it is a extremely congested with no alternative routes (a limited monopoly), and OCTA has made some money on it, with little in the way of results for overall congestion reduction.
It is being done here because the Democratic Mayor wanted the money from the Bush Administration, who advocated for this "market based solution". We will finally get some decent bus service on the Harbor busway, and an extra "carpool" lane on the I-10 to El Monte. The buses and the lane are a plus and might have some limited impacts on congestion for a brief period on those corridors.
The true believers in "market incentives" will love HOT Lanes, most of us will not even be able use them (no expensive transponder), and a few bus users will benefit from the better bus service,. It will not solve our transportation finance crisis, and it will have little or no impact on overall congestion.
Posted by: BOB2 | July 23, 2009 at 05:02 PM
what happen green los angeles now we goin to have more cars in the other lanes burning more gas lots of more smog
is all about greed
who came out this idea in thew federal goverment is a idiot
we all now local politicians will do any thing for cash
green los angeles mayor you are a idiot
Posted by: martin | July 23, 2009 at 05:46 PM
I'd use it.
Posted by: Edge | July 23, 2009 at 06:01 PM
Let's hear it for the weatlhy being able to buy their way into the fast lane. What a shame.
Posted by: Keith | July 23, 2009 at 06:03 PM
"Let's hear it for the weatlhy being able to buy their way into the fast lane. What a shame."
Perfectly fine w/ me. They should pay for their consequences of solo private vehicle use & in effect help finance projects for others who always got the short end of the stick--transit dependent. Sorry, I just don't buy into the "not fair" "inequity" garbini argument.
Posted by: urban_vaquero | July 23, 2009 at 07:29 PM
Few people used public transporttion so Please don't waste our money...
Posted by: Dawn | July 23, 2009 at 07:31 PM
In case you're confused, we've already paid for these lanes with years and years and years of taxes. It's not our responsibility to pay for them again so idiots can continue living in a car-free LA fantasyland.
Posted by: Bob Johnson | July 23, 2009 at 07:47 PM