When HOT Starts, Will There be HOV Hours
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Category: Archived Slugging Topics
Forum Name: HOT Lanes Discussion
Forum Description: Post messages regarding High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes here.
URL: http://www.slug-lines.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6024
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Topic: When HOT Starts, Will There be HOV Hours
Posted By: goober
Subject: When HOT Starts, Will There be HOV Hours
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2014 at 2:47pm
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I'm sorry if this topic or question has been asked before, but will the "HOV rides are free" have limited hours? If it's the case where HOV/HOT is 24 hours a day (which appears to be the case), the mutual benefit between drivers and slugs during rush hour times could potentially be thinned out to where it becomes ineffective. I think that the current set hours for HOV is one key factor in making the system work.
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Replies:
Posted By: eao
Date Posted: 08 Dec 2014 at 8:15am
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The hours for the lanes traveling northbound or southbound will probably remain the same. They will always be HOV free but toll paying if you have less than 3 people in the car. For example, on Friday evenings I don't leave Northern Virginia until after 6:30. Under the current system I can travel in my car alone for free in those lanes. Once the lane requirements change I will have to have 2 other people in the car or pay a toll to travel the same stretch of road I can currently use for free at that hour. I think it will improve things for slugging in that if people have to work late they might have a better chance of picking up a ride somewhere if a driver wants to avoid paying the toll which could be as high as $5 or 6 dollars from beginning to end, depending on the time of day. The down side will be that now that people who are driving alone will legally be allowed on the HOV/HOT lanes during rush hour and the lanes will become more congested. I was in Giant over the weekend; there was someone buying a regular Ez-Pass. He was asked if he wanted a Flex Pass since it would be free if he has 3 people in the car and his response was he was never going to have 3 people in his car. So essentially the whole purpose behind those lanes will be defeated because people who are willing to pay up to $12 daily round trip will be able to use the lanes and the trip will be no faster than the main lanes.
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Posted By: SpongeBob
Date Posted: 08 Dec 2014 at 11:33am
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You're dreaming if you think it will be $5-6 "from beginning to end." That price would never begin to do what variable tolling is intended to do: cap the number of drivers in the toll road to ensure free flow by forcing an economic choice on the commuter of, "Can you afford to pay for this next stretch of road?" It will be $5-6 for just the stretch around the beltway during heavy hours. At least!
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Posted By: eao
Date Posted: 09 Dec 2014 at 12:54pm
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I was basing that on the propaganda sent out on the subject. $1 each way is too much to spend on a road that has been free up til this point.
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Posted By: NoSUV
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2014 at 11:21am
Under variable tolling, the price goes up so that at least 55 mph can be maintained. That means if it takes $100 (or more), the toll goes up until people choose to leave the toll lanes for the regular lanes.
What has never been addressed is what happens if only carpools are in the toll lanes and it becomes congested. Under that premise, raising tolls has no effect.
I suspect the day is coming with it is no longer HOV forever free.
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Posted By: scottt
Date Posted: 23 Dec 2014 at 8:09am
quote:
Originally posted by NoSUV
I suspect the day is coming with it is no longer HOV forever free.
For once you and I actually agree on something.
Just ask all the carpoolers in Southern CA on the 91 Express lanes.
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Posted By: SpongeBob
Date Posted: 05 Jan 2015 at 5:39pm
Two things:
One is that I've been proven right about the exorbitant prices being charged. There was very little traffic at 9:00 a.m. on the 31st of December, but the toll was $2.50 to go from 234 to 123, a stretch of about 4-5 miles. Two Freaking and a Half Dollars! Where was the promised .10 cents a mile? That price was a come-on for the state, a promise that was never, ever, in a million bloody years, going to happen. So what we had on the 31st was three fairly crowded (albeit 65 mph) regular lanes, and three lanes that were almost completely empty! I saw ONE car on the toll road before the Occoquan, and then about 5 cars before the Beltway. That's it.
What that really means is that instead of spreading the traffic across all the lanes, we've condensed it back onto three, with resulting loss in safety for all of us poor schmucks who aren't on expense accounts.
Two is that Transurban long ago admitted that they expect that there will come a time when HOV will no longer be free. This was in an article on the front page of the WaPo. I've posted the link in other, um, posts, on here. (I calls 'em posts, you can calls 'em rants. Whatev.)
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