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Carl Molesworth

Will HOT Lanes Reduce Traffic Congestion?
April 14, 2008

The debate about how to manage our overcrowded highway system continues. Speaking to a group of transportation and industry officials in Portland on Friday at a luncheon put on by the Oregon Environmental Council, Gov. Ted Kulongoski pledged to enact green transportation legislation.

The governor called the state’s current transportation infrastructure “woefully inadequate” and said he will propose the largest and greenest plan of his tenure next year. He called for people to drive less, to use cleaner fuels and for better technology devoted to alternative transportation, like electric cars.

Kulongoski said systemwide changes are needed in Oregon, but one solution is particularly “unacceptable” to him.   

“If our only answer is highway expansion, and not a multi-modal solution, then we are taking a step backward on climate warming,” the governor said.

Kulongoski drew applause when he said he advocates “congestion pricing” -- meaning tolls -- to encourage drivers to carpool or use mass transit.

“In plain English,” the governor explained, this involves “tolls that vary by time of day, by location, or by congestion level, so that those who are using the highway at the most desirable time are paying more to do so.”

Before he gets too excited about congestion pricing, the governor might want to wait for preliminary results from a four-year pilot project that is about to start next door in Washington state. Here, the state department of transportation is getting ready to try out congestion pricing on a stretch of crowded freeway near Seattle. The HOV lane on a nine-mile stretch of State Route 167 will become a HOT (“high-occupancy toll”) lane this month, using electronic tolling technology to make better use of unused space in the lane.

On SR 167, solo drivers will be able to choose to pay a toll and drive in the HOT lane to avoid congestion when there is space in the lane for more vehicles. With variable tolling, the toll price will rise automatically when traffic thickens. The state Transportation Commission established a toll range of 50 cents to $9.

Electronic signs will inform drivers of the current price in advance, so drivers can choose if and when they want to use the HOT lanes for an express trip. In theory, the sliding scale will ensure that drivers in the HOT lanes can travel quickly and reliably whenever they choose to use them.

Not everyone in Washington is excited about the potential for HOT lanes. For one thing, people don’t like tolls of any kind. And already in the local press I’m reading about those who call them “Lexus Lanes,” because they think only wealthy people will be able to take advantage of them. Apparently, these people haven’t considered that each driver moving over into the HOT lane frees up a space in the regular lanes. That sounds like a win-win to me.

On the other hand, I’ve always been skeptical of the cost-benefit value of high-occupancy lanes. Notice they aren’t called “carpool lanes” any more, because so few carpools exist to use them. In fact, about the only carpooler I know is Dagwood Bumstead.

Gov. Kulongoski is on the right track in his attempts to wrap environmental and transportation initiatives together so they won’t turn out to be working at cross purposes. But at this early date it remains to be seen if “congestion pricing” will actually reduce traffic congestion by any significant amount.

I think some of his other ideas have more merit. The governor said he wants Oregonians to have more choices when it comes to hybrid and plug-in car technology, as well as alternative fuels. The state also needs to encourage people to drive less, he added, by extending tax credits for telecommuting, carpooling, biking and taking public transportation.

That sounds good to me. What do you think?

Until next time…

Posted by Carl Molesworth on April 14, 2008 | Comments (0)