These are Fluor's answers to questions from VDOT about the toll road proposals:
1. How could you guarantee there would always be free HOV Lanes?
Please see the provisions of Article 3.1 of Title 33.1 of the Code of Virginia for the provisions of existing Virginia law providing for HOV free in HOT lanes.
(Really? What a great answer! It's not like a company has ever asked for a law to be changed before. I'm sure everyone knows that once something is in the Code of Virginia it cannot be changed.)
2. How often are HOT vehicles crowded out by HOV lanes? What experience does your team have with this scenario and has this been experienced on similar HOV/HOT facilities?
Fluor-Transurban has developed HOV forecasts for 2015 and 2030 under a range of different background scenarios. These forecasts are based on the strategic model developed for the Capital Beltway Project which has been extended to cover the I-95/395 Project. This model uses the MWCOG Model as a platform but has had more than $1 million of investment and 15 months of development to ensure that it can provide investment grade forecasts for HOV / HOT lane type projects. We therefore have a high level of confidence in the forecasts. For the range of scenarios tested, Fluor-Transurban does not believe that HOVs will ‘crowd out’ HOT vehicles to a degree where HOT customers will have an uncertain value proposition. The Fluor-Transurban traffic advisers, Vollmer Associates have extensive knowledge of and are retained to provide traffic and revenue advice in relation to the SR91 HOT Lane facility in Los Angeles. Accordingly, our modeling for the I-95/ 395 BRT / HOT Lanes has included the application of
knowledge on demand management and trip spreading that has occurred as a result of dynamic pricing of the HOT customers.
(In short, let me reduce the BS here: after $1 million and 15 months, we have no data to answer your question of "how often". However, the company "does not believe" tollpayers will be crowded out by HOVers, because we are going with Vollmer's SR91 data.)
Folks, this is a load of horse hockey. This Texas-based company is cynically avoiding answering the questions posed on our behalf by a Virginia state agency trying to protect the interests of the citizens of the Commonwealth. Where is the Press? How can this be happening in broad daylight?
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