Hwy 101 Carpool-Toll Lanes?

The DJ is the latest paper to report on the possible study of adding carpool or toll lanes to 101 through B'game:

With commute times on Highway 101 getting worse, the City/County Association of Governments is moving forward with studying whether carpool and toll lanes can solve the problem.

The C/CAG board is seeking $9.4 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to conduct the preliminary environmental and design work needed before any potential construction can actually take place on the corridor.

C/CAG has also requested another $8.5 million from the San Mateo County Transportation Authority for the environmental phase of the project.

The plan now is to bring the lanes south from the Santa Clara County border north to Interstate 380 in San Bruno.

The average peak commute speed on Highway 101 is now about 25 mph, said San Mateo County Supervisor Don Horsley.

The piece goes on to note that a carpool lane would only increase the average speed by 3 mph, but "we have to do something".  Who would care to speculate on the Unintended Consequences of such a move?  I know a bit about commuting down 101.  Not as much as I did 10 years ago, thank God, but a bit and it is ridiculous to describe either the problem or the solution in terms of averages.  If C/CAG and the MTC come back with a recommendation of a toll lane will we also get a movement for "affordable commuting"?  The whole phenomenon is driven by the Silicon Valley economy which is cyclical, but one thing is for sure--high-speed rail on the Caltrain corridor will not help things!

Comments

[Laura]

I drive it every day to Menlo Park and it is worse then ever. Whoever designed the Hillsdale off ramp and 92 on ramp, north bound, never drove a car, EVER. The cars back up to Woodside Road all due to that off ramp, on ramp. They need to elevate one or the other and speeds would pick up substantially. Also, if Foster City would connect to Redwood shores,I bet 101 would lose about 25 percent of the cars.

[resident]

Two thumbs up for that last idea of connecting FC and Redwood Shores. I think it makes a lot more sense to build one little bridge than change the whole freeway configuration for some tiny improvement.

[hillsider]

This is a letter to the Daily Journal from a local person that I don't know, but he makes good sense

The recent Daily Journal article on the City/County Association of Governments seeking funding to construct high occupancy carpool/toll lanes on Highway 101 (“Agency studies 101 toll lanes” in the Nov. 27 edition of the Daily Journal) needs some clarification due to comments made by C/CAG board member David Canepa.

Canepa supported the carpool lane but had second thoughts on allowing non-carpools access to them for a toll because “some county residents will not be able to afford the toll.”

However, the express lane is an optional lane — adjacent lanes will continue to be free, unlike the bus where all riders, regardless of income, are required to pay a fare. There are no “free seats” like how there are (and always will be) free lanes on 101.

What’s attractive about the express lane is anyone in a rush and willing to pay the toll should be able to drive 45 mph (according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission fact sheet on express lanes), and that’s good for folks of any income.

For example, a low-income parent driving to pick up his/her child from day care could be running late. Rather than incur the $1 per minute overtime fee from the day care center, they could avoid that fee by paying less than a transit fare to use the express lane.

Freeways will remain free with express lanes; they just open up the HOV lane to any driver who isn’t in a carpool or driving a Tesla with the appropriate stickers allowing access to the carpool lane.

Irvin Dawid

Burlingame

[Jennifer]

We saw something like this, in LA. It takes awhile to get used to. The "toll" areas are well defined using a solid line, and you can only get off and on at certain points, most of which are quite far apart. If you mess up, you cannot switch out of the lane until the next interval opening. I'm sure there are other ways to do it, too....

[Joe]

@hillsider Thank you for catching the letter I missed. It is OK to repost full letters to the editor but we would prefer if you included the link to the original post. In this case, it is here:

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/opinions/2015-12-18/letter-highway-101-express-lanes/1776425155350.html

There is another letter from another local today that notes:

where do the planners think that traffic will head next? They will take the easiest way out and head for streets like El Camino Real, Hillsdale Boulevard, State Route 92, Ralston Avenue and so on. Essentially, the gridlock will now be everywhere: 101, Caltrain and city streets, which are already beyond capacity much of the day. The planners had better return to the drawing board to figure out how to make the transportation system more sustainable for larger numbers of people.

You can read the rest here:

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/opinions/2015-12-21/letter-gridlock-everywhere/1776425155480.html

If you happen to read the comments (which I don't recommend because the DJ commenters are pretty lame) you will see some people who seem to think the drought is over after 6 days of rain. Not!!