High-occupancy toll lane

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FasTrak HOT toll lanes on Interstate 15 southbound at Escondido, California . The amount of the toll varies.

A high-occupancy toll lane (or HOT lane ) in the USA and Canada is a lane or lane that is free of charge for fully occupied (large) vehicles (HOV) as well as for vehicles exempt from tolls ; other vehicles must pay the toll at a variable rate, which is adjusted in response to demand. In contrast to toll roads, drivers have the option of using the other lanes on the road that are exempt from the toll. The toll express toll lanes (ETL) are rarer and work in a similar way, but do not exempt fully occupied vehicles from the toll.

history

The concept was created to better use and utilize the high-occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV) and thus to increase overall traffic capacities. Most of the roads established in this way are in the United States.

Practically the first implementation was the private toll levied in Orange County (California) in 1995 on the express lanes of California State Route 91 . The concept was adopted on Interstate 15 north of San Diego in 1996 . According to the Texas A&M University Transportation Institute, there were 294 miles of HOT and Express lanes in the United States in 2012, and an additional 163 miles under construction.

Canada's first implementation was on the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) in Ontario . Between Oakville and Burlington , 10 miles of existing HOV lanes of the QEW became HOT lanes. Initially, permits were issued for three months at $ 180, although an electronic toll billing infrastructure was announced as part of the upcoming Ontario Highway 427 expansion .

layout

An in-vehicle switchable FasTrak transponder for Greater Los Angeles that is mounted on the dashboard.

In the case of some toll lanes, the survey is adapted to the direction of travel of the commuter in the morning and switched in the opposite direction for the commuter in the evening. In some cases, separated lanes are also adapted in the direction of travel for daily needs. The toll is usually collected electronically, less often through automatic license plate recognition or toll stations with staff. Excluded are vehicles that meet HOV with at least two, three or four occupants and vehicles that are operated with officially recognized alternative fuels as well as motorcycles, public transport and rescue vehicles.

The amount of the toll, which is displayed at the approved access points of the lanes, is determined depending on the need in order to regulate the volume of traffic and to guarantee a guaranteed minimum traffic speed as well as the traffic quality.

The HOT system of the Los Angeles Metro ExpressLanes are separate lanes for this public transport, which can be used with your own car for a toll. This requires the installation of a manually “switchable” transponder in the vehicle, in which the driver enters the number of occupants himself in order to collect and invoice the corresponding toll on this basis. California Highway Patrol employees have devices in the company vehicle that display the registered occupancy of a passing vehicle, which they can visually check and punish drivers with fewer passengers than declared with parking tickets and additional tolls. The new system proved to be effective against toll evaders (who steal the toll ) and fell from 40-50% of other comparable highways in California, which registered 20-25% violations, to below 10%. As a result of this finding, other state officials in California who worked for road traffic brought those responsible for the San Francisco Bay Area in Alameda County to adopt a similar system instead of the one planned for Interstate 580 at the time.

Financing and construction

The implementation of these systems can be prohibitively expensive because of the structure required for this - especially with regard to dedicated connection points for the express toll lanes. The long-term benefits - reduced delays for drivers and the revenue to finance road construction and public transport - can outweigh the cost. To reduce construction costs, many property developers award their projects to a public-private partnership, which in turn rents the streets to the public and the state. As a result, the construction can be partially or fully funded by the private body, which receives all the toll revenue for a period of time.

Criticisms

The afternoon rush hour in Miami, when the toll highways are congested and virtually "closed"

Since HOT lanes and ETLs are often constructed within the existing road space, they are called environmental tax criticized or useful only for people with higher incomes " Lexus -Fahrspuren" because the tolls are levied regardless of socioeconomic status and for acquiring arms a relatively higher financial burden represents. Supporters of HOT lanes disagree with this fact that HOT lanes encourage the use of public transport and carpooling and reduce the overall cost of traffic and represent an overall benefit for everyone . Unfortunately, current American public transportation is still viewed and characterized as a form of welfare, leading to paradoxical spending as public tax dollars in the US carry high subsidies for transit services, while having low passenger numbers and fewer hours of operation than other major public transit systems and transit systems longer waiting times between destinations. In addition, HOT lanes do not offer any guarantee of avoiding traffic congestion, which calls into question their general usefulness other than generating income for private institutions and governments.

Examples

  • Metro ExpressLanes
  • Virginia HOT lanes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dave Downey: The HOT lane hype . The North County Times. January 7, 2007. Retrieved July 15, 2008.
  2. ^ Metropolitan Transportation Commission: High-Occupancy-Vehicle (HOV) and High-Occupancy / Toll (HOT) Lanes: Frequently Asked Questions . April 14, 2008. Archived from the original on June 3, 2008. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  3. ^ Urban Land Institute (ULI): When the Road Price Is Right - Land Use, Tolls, and Congestion Pricing . Urban Land Institute. 2013. Accessed April 9, 2013. See Figure 2, pp.6
  4. ↑ Canada's First High Occupancy Toll Lanes Open September 15 ( en ) Government of Ontario. September 14, 2016. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  5. ↑ QEW HOV lanes become HOT lanes today for single drivers (en) . In: CBC News , September 15, 2016. Retrieved November 4, 2017. 
  6. ^ Ontario Moving Forward On Highway 427 Expansion ( en ) Government of Ontario. March 3, 2016. Retrieved November 4, 2017: “High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lane infrastructure will be included in the construction work. A 15.5 km stretch of dedicated HOT lanes with electronic tolling in both directions on Highway 427, from south of Highway 409 to north of Rutherford Road, will open in 2021. "
  7. ^ Exempt Vehicles .
  8. ↑ FAQ - VA I-495 HOT Lanes ( memento from November 29, 2010 in the web archive archive.today ), accessed on October 6, 2009
  9. ↑ Brookings Institution economic study on HOT Lanes ( Memento from August 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ^ MD I-95 Express Toll Lanes ( memento of February 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on October 6, 2009
  11. ^ Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance . Archived from the original on October 3, 2015.
  12. ↑ Golden Gate Bridge for variable great .
  13. ↑ FAQs: FasTrak . In: Metro ExpressLanes . Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority . Retrieved March 3, 2013.
  14. ↑ FAQs: Driving Metro ExpressLanes . In: Metro ExpressLanes . Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
  15. ^ Gary Richards: Bay Area carpoolers must use FasTrak in express lanes under new law . San Jose Mercury News. July 11, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
  16. ^ Virginia Department of Transportation: I-495 HOT Lanes. Archived from the original on February 13, 2010 ; accessed on August 31, 2009 .
  17. ↑ A Guide for HOT Lane Development (FHWA, 2003) ( Memento from September 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  18. ↑ Kenny Malone: Are Lexus Lanes Really Lexus Lanes? . WLRN. June 23, 2014. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
  19. ↑ MTC Planning - HOV / HOT Lanes ( memento from June 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on October 6, 2009
  20. ^ Joseph Stromberg: The real reason American public transportation is such a disaster . Vox. August 10, 2015. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
  21. ↑ Josh Cohen: Will expansion of HOT Lanes Help Commuters? . Next City. November 3, 2017. Retrieved March 25, 2018.