HOV Lanes, Save Time on Your Commute

The Texas Transportation Institute has just completed its annual Urban Mobility study.  This is a nationwide study that looks at population, freeway and arterial street miles traveled, public transportation, fuel and personal costs to determine how long we spend in "Rush Hour" traffic.  As you all have probably guessed San Antonio has moved up the ladder of congested cities over the years, from a ranking of 34 in 1984 to 32 in 2009. 

But what's really interesting is back in 1988 we actually had more traffic congestion than we have now with a ranking of the 28th most congested city.  So what happened? The number of freeway lane and arterial street miles went up between 1988 and 2009 (48% more freeway lanes and 29% more arterial street miles), but the number of vehicles miles traveled went up by 102% on freeways and 61% on arterial streets.  So we are way behind on building enough streets.  But in 1988 we didn't have the TxDOT "Smart Highway System".  This system of cameras and highway instant warning signs helps TxDOT to manage traffic by letting commuters know about congestion ahead and getting service vehicles and police out to the scenes of accidents more quickly. 

So if the cameras and warning signs can make such a difference, what if we added HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes to the mix.  In Houston (where they need all the time savings they can get) the 2.2 million HOV lane miles save Houstonians 2.8 million hours in traffic, and in Dallas/Ft. Worth/Arlington, where HOV lanes are relatively new, the 390,000 HOV lane miles save 433,000 hours in traffic.  New lanes wouldn't even have to be added to the highways, they would just need to be striped and signs would need to be posted, much cheaper and faster than building new lanes.  Wouldn't you like to save more time on your commute?

For more information on HOV lanes, check out this post.

Making Bus Travel Easier and Faster

VIA's reimagined Express Service is now on line.  I got a door tag with two free ride coupons to advertise the new routes and buses.  The buses have WIFI, cargo racks, plush seats, reading lights and hybrid engines, making them a far cry from the Express bus I used to ride back in 1983.

But in a city with a lot of traffic, how do you make the bus go faster?  In about 2 years, VIA plans to have a gizmo that allows them to change red lights green, but that's a few years in the future.  Other ways to make buses faster are HOV lanes (a pretty inexpensive thing to do, and contrary to car commuter fears, doesn't slow down the rest of traffic, check out my post about them here.)  And in NYC they have put in bus ticket kiosks by the bus stops in order to take fare collection out of the picture, a process that slows down bus travel by 30%.  After adding light changing transponders and fare kiosks, bus ridership in New York went up by 20%, in a city where mass transit is highly used that's pretty phenomenal.  It's also the first time, that when polled, NYC bus riders were 98% satisfied with the bus service.

So will fancier, faster bus service catch on in SA, the jury is still out, but I think I'm going to try out my free bus rides.

HOV lanes, Not in my Backyard!

What exactly are HOV Lanes?  HOV or High Occupancy Vehicle lanes are lanes on a congested highway that are set aside either by a buffer or a barrier and are reserved for vehicles with usually 2 or more passengers.

Barrier HOV  ops.fhwa.dot.gov

Buffer HOV   www.cpedia.com

HOV lanes mean you have to pay a toll to drive on the highway, right?  WRONG, an HOV lane is just a dedicated lane of a regular highway.

If they make it so one lane is only for carpools and buses, it's going to make traffic even worse! Well not according to a study done by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), part of the A&M University System, on the effectiveness of HOV lanes in Dallas. TTI found that

• All five freeways with an HOV lanes have shown an 8 to 12 percent increase in average automobile occupancy, suggesting that motorists have formed carpools to gain the benefits of traveling in an HOV lane.
• HOV lane speeds on all five facilities are significantly higher than the speeds on the adjacent general-purpose lanes.
• General-purpose lane speeds have remained constant or have increased on all corridors since the opening of the HOV lanes.
• Bus operating speeds have more than doubled since the opening of the HOV lanes on IH-30, IH-35E North, and IH-35E South during the AM and PM peak hours.
• DART’s bus operating costs have been reduced by approximately $587,000 per year since the implementation of HOV lanes.
• All HOV lane projects are cost-effective and have attained or are projected to attain a benefit-cost ratio greater than 1.0 within the first six years of operation.

But, light rail would be so much better than HOV lanes and buses.  Well apparently commuters in Austin don't agree.  Tory Gattis at houstonstrategies.blogspot.com says that

Austin bus riders are protesting the cancellation of existing commuter bus routes that parallel the new rail line.  Why?  Because the buses are *faster*.  This is one of the key arguments I've made against commuter rail in Houston: net-30mph commuter trains are much slower than 60mph express buses in HOV lanes, especially when considering the long walk or connection after getting off of the train vs. buses that can circulate around the job center to get you close to your building.

So, if HOV lanes increase the speeds on highways, make buses faster, help bus transit authorities save money, and are cost-effective (in other words, pretty inexpensive to install), WHY ARE YOU AGAINST THEM?????