Wake Up People! HOT lanes

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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.

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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

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

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?

"If you go between Woodbridge, and DC... You know the answer."

No, I don't. I leave Horner Road around 7:30 in the morning and have yet to experience any delays in traffic. Maybe he's right and I'm too emotionally tied to this to see the truth. Do you know of any good sold articles that talk about the effectiveness of the HOV. Is it being used to it's max limit?

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Originally posted by karmapolice
[br]"If you go between Woodbridge, and DC... You know the answer."

No, I don't. I leave Horner Road around 7:30 in the morning and have yet to experience any delays in traffic. Maybe he's right and I'm too emotionally tied to this to see the truth. Do you know of any good sold articles that talk about the effectiveness of the HOV. Is it being used to it's max limit?

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There have been studies, but as you might expect, some studies have a bias in one direction, and some in the other. Recommend you look at postings by Robert Lang or Dick Boyd - they have explored this topic previously, and both offer their email addresses if you want to contact them directly.

Most on this site offer opinions or observed "facts." Most also see things through their point of view - biased, narrow minded, and unlikely to withstand empirical data review.

I also do not see the express lane congestion that you do not see, but I only use I-395. At the same time, I see tremendous congestion in the regular lanes during HOV hours. However, some will say that just because express lanes move above the speed limit and regular lanes crawl, that still doesn't mean that the express lanes are under utilized because additional vehicles will put them at a "tipping point" and they will no longer be able to travel at high speeds.

Interesting that other areas with similar populations don't have near the congestion, nor do those areas have lanes dedicated to just HOV.