Recent Backups on the HOV

Hey Spongebob:

Agreed. Great Idea.

Ussage fee to keep exemption. Now were on a right track. Any other Ideas out there?

But what would a meaningful usage fee be? $500? $1000? And wouldn't it be essentially a tollroad at that point? I was sorta kidding, my friend. It's my fear of the clever clowns of VDOT that keeps me awake at night. I'm going dressed as one on Halloween.

(BTW, I'm a public school man, too. [;)])

quote:

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Originally posted by gsm
[br]Hear! Hear! I agree. VA has made it way to easy for the single drivers, including an early lifting of restrictions (6pm). Years ago it was 6:30pm and allowing them onto the HOV at Edsall Rd to go a few exits. (People say that it is because of the Springfield Interchange construction, but this was in effect waaaay before that started.) Letting the single drivers on at Edsall Rd.literally stops the HOV and the regular lanes are just zipping right along. Way to go VA. These decisions do NOT promote carpooling.

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It isn't because of the CONSTRUCTION; your point amply illustrates that. The official reason is that it's because of the small merge area between the Beltway and the Old Keene Mill/Franconia exit, which has been a snarl for years. VDOT says that the rationale for allowing all vehicles to use the Turkeycock Run entrance into the express lanes to bypass Springfield is that it is preferable to have a backup in the express lanes as opposed to having THREE more severe backups (I-395 and both loops of the Beltway) if all those cars had to stay in the regular lanes. The hardcore HOV crowd may resent it, but there is some logic to it.

The plans for the Springfield Interchange call for both eliminating this exemption and for closing the Turkeycock Run entrance to the express lanes once the construction is done in 2007 (the reason is that the merging I reference above will be eliminated when the work is done). Guess we'll see in three years.