Wake Up People! HOT lanes

I didn't know whether I should start a new topic for this question. My friend told who is from NYC told me that the Northern VA HOV lanes are under utilized and are a failed social engineering experiment. I slug to DC from Woodbridge and was really hurt by his comments.

Are the HOV lanes underutilized?

Dick, You said "The thing to concentrate on is wasted public porperty. The underutilized parallel road that should be carrying 1,800 vehicles per lane per hour, but instead carries only 500 to 1,000 vehicles per lane per hour. The parallel road with low reliability of service. One day in twenty will be congested. Sometimes congestion lasting as long as 48 hours. (Black powder truck turned over in Springfield Interchange, e.g.)"

What is the underutilized parallel road, the HOV or regular lanes?
I don't see any underutilized road during rush hour. Or are you suggesting that the roads during non-peak hours are underutilized?

Goober

quote:

---

Originally posted by Bob
[br]Although it is very difficult to plow through anything Dick Boyd writes, I interpret it as very pro HOT. He has bought into the theory that flows can be adjusted through dynamic tolling. This may work on some HOT lane in Houston but it won't work with the 14th Street bottleneck. The pro HOTs say we can reduce the number of toll vehicles through higher tolls. I will GUARANTEE that the HOT developers projections have THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of toll vehicles going up 395. This is the only way they will make a profit. Option A when congestion happens is to toll HOVs. What level of common sense does this take to understand that this is totally unattainable? What I think is the people on the Comm. Transportation Board typicially graduated with training in liberal arts and have no concept of traffic management.

---

Bob, thanks for your interpretation of what I was trying to say. I am pro high occupancy and anti toll. I am pro getting ALL lanes flowing smoothly.

Have I bought into the theory that variable tolling can adjust flow? No. Does variable tolling work in Texas? No. Califronia? No.

What CAN adjust flow is more passengers or more drive alones switching to a different time. What does it take to get passengers? Better parking? Better pick up points? More publicity? What does it take to get people to change time of day road use?

From what I read of the Fluor or Clark proposals, what they are selling is the ability for an elite group of rich people to drive alone while everyone else can ride transit. From what I see of the reaction from the people that will be affected, the response is ho-hum. When that time comes, I'll ride VRE.

CTB member comment? Agreed. But more political science than liberal arts. Fund raisers, vote getters. Their concept of traffic management? "Do it their way. Any questions?"

dickboyd@aol.com

What's the deal with Dickboyd? Does any of what he said make any sense? No sleeping in the kitchen ?! What kind of society is dickboyd trying to run? I don't get it.

quote:

---

Originally posted by goober
[br]Ok Dick, Dillon Rule is the crux of the matter but do you really expect participants of the slug system to change how we are governed? So, given the circumstances, what do you suggest we focus on to make a difference? It looks like we have little to no clout, so HOT will move forward, but can we ensure that HOV stays free forever?

Goober

---

Do I expect participants of the slug system to change how we are governed? No.

But I do expect participants to understand how Virginians are governed. All too often slugs are new to Virginia and think that Virginia is governed like the place they came from. Virginia is more of a do it yourself place. If you can do it yourself, then do it. Elected officials demand too much of a mark up for their services.

Don't ask an elected official for anything unless they owe you big time. For instance, you canvassed the neighbohood for the swing vote that carried the last election. You contributed enough to cover TV spots, etc.

The losses that slugs have suffered have not come from the people that slugs vote for. Or that slugs will ever be in a position to vote for. The losses come from the Stan Parris and Ken Plums and Daryl Issas. Yes, there are losses of slug parking that can be attributed to County Supervisors. Yes, there is loss of slug promotion that can be attributed to County Supervisors. But those supervisors seem to be mirroring the political winds. What it takes to get them elected. Campaign contributions from transit workers.

Slugs don't carry enough political clout one way or the other to make a difference with elected officials. You can try. But the more honest elected officials will deny that they have any ability to do anything about transportation. The better ones will help lay out a list of contacts that make transportation decisions. The poorer ones will lead you astray with promises that they will do something while they vote more subsidy for VRE and WMATA/METRO. They can't do anything except kill slugs. Their hands are tied when it comes to helping slugs. They can't even recruit slugs. They can't publicly support slugging.

Normally, in the public arena, I would suggest concentrating on the Commonwealth Transportaion Board through the northern Virginia representatives on CTB. But I don't think Kate Hanley gives a hoot about efficient use of roads. She strikes me as being enthralled by the political success of Sharon Bulova, Eileen McConnell and other elected members that are on the board of directors of VRE or sit on the various representative boards to the Metropolitan Planning Organizations. The "official" emphasis seems to be on transit at any price. If someone is willing to be a passenger, the attitude I'm picking up from elected officials is that passengers belong in transit, not in someone else's car.

What to focus on to make a difference?

Getting passengers from the ranks of the drive alones.

How do you recruit a slug? Use the personnel department at work (human resources) to identify future passengers. If possible, get computer lists of where people live by ZIP code. If names can't be released, at least ask for a head count to determine if there are people you might approach.

Use the company newspaper to praise the benefits of slugging. Use your personal contacts at the kid's sporting events, at church, when shopping. Make a mental note of the people you see driving alone in the regular lanes and see if any of them are at your work place. Drop a subtle hint that you drove alone when you first came to northen Virginia until you discovered slugging.

When you make a purchase, make sure the merchant knows the reason you have the money to make the purchase is that you slug. If the merchant still doesn't get the hint follow up with a comment about how his sales could increase if more people slugged. Comment about how much more efficient parking is at the store now that people slug. If he still doesn't get the hint, suggest that the money collected in taxes to support VRE and WMATA does not stay in Virginia.

Concentrate on making all lanes flow smoothly. Get a model from Robert Lang to explain the need to share the ride.

This is political. Ken Plum is an excellent delegate and has done great thing for education in Virginia. It would be a shame to lose him. But Ken introduced legislation that affects people not in his district. Namely the hybrid exemption. Ken is not on any of the committees that deal with transportation. I don't know his motivation for supporting drive alone hybrids.

But something the voters in Reston seem to fear is affordable housing. Talk to some people in Reston and see how they feel about affordable housing. Ask why there are so few teachers, firefighters and road workers that can afford to live there. Possibly Ken would be willing to trade off affordable housing for dropping his efforts to destroy the people carrying capacity in the Shirley corridor.

Even the rumbling of affordable housing might get Ken Plum busy on things in his own back yard.

What was the legislation about the number of people that could live in a house? No uncles or aunts? No sleeping in the kitchen?

Skip the politics, that can backfire. Distance yourself from politics and politicians. Concentrate on recruiting passengers from the ranks of the drive alones.

Reading financial tea leaves. PPTA and HOt are the wave of the future. Politcians are gutless as are American banks. Spain, Austrlia and European banks will eat our lunch when it comes to transportation investment. National security? Who cares if the Spanish own the freeways and the dollars flow to Barcelona? Apparently not the people that live in the corridor.

Do you know any American bankers or finaciers?

What Robert Lang can bring to the table is some sanity. The way I read the proposals for HOt (capital HO, lower case t), the operator will charge tolls high enough to divert enough drive alones into transit or travelling at some other time. Two aspects of how much to charge are what does it take to get people to change what time of day they are on the road and how much do you have to pay them to sit in congested traffic in the regular lanes.

The thing to concentrate on is wasted public porperty. The underutilized parallel road that should be carrying 1,800 vehicles per lane per hour, but instead carries only 500 to 1,000 vehicles per lane per hour. The parallel road with low reliability of service. One day in twenty will be congested. Sometimes congestion lasting as long as 48 hours. (Black powder truck turned over in Springfield Interchange, e.g.)

Some of the money collected on HOt will be used to pay people to ride in transit. If HOt doens't collect enough money to pay VRE and transit, people aren't going to dig into their own pockets. But as long as it looks like someone else is paying, they will be just like the politicians. In the trough with both feet and a snout. So we are back to the emphasis on learning how the people in Virginia govern themselves. Do they do it themselves, or do they turn it over to elected officials? How much money is in your wallet?

dickboyd@aol.com