ExpressLanes

Metro ridership has grown for 26 consecutive months, plus brief updates on Metro projects: 5 Freeway widening, 57/60 Freeway widening, 105 Freeway widening, G Line, Union Station, Southeast Gateway line, East SFV, and more

Metro and Caltrans are planning to expand the current ten-lane 105 Freeway to twelve lanes, plus adding new auxiliary lanes, widening ramps, and widening streets.

Tolls may disproportionately burden the poor, but so other ways of paying for roads.

Tonight, Caltrans is hosting a meeting to gather input on a new freeway off-ramp that would funnel 110 Freeway traffic onto Figueroa Street just south of downtown Los Angeles. The meeting takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Orthopedic Institute for Children, 403 West Adams Boulevard in South Los Angeles.

At the April 2014 board meeting, Metro's ExpressLanes and the Metro Silver Line were the big success story.

When Metro first proposed converting HOV Lanes to congestion pricing lanes where drivers could choose to pay cash for a congestion free trip, some politicians and news paper columnists were outraged. Some where so outraged at the "Lexus Lanes" they worked tirelessly to get them moved somewhere else. Others were so outraged they wrote research-free opinion columns standing up for all of the poor people that wouldn't be able to buy in to the toll lanes every day.

Just when you thought the I-405 Widening Project through the Sepulveda Pass couldn't get less popular.

This weekend, Express Lanes opened on 14 miles of the I-10 between Alameda Street in downtown Los Angeles and the 605 freeway. The lanes converted existing HOV lanes to HOV/HOT lanes during non-peak hours. This means solo-car commuters can buy their way into the carpool lane if they have a FastTrack transponder. Carpoolers will also need to purchase the transponder. This need is controversial.

Ever since Metro first announced the details of its ExpressLanes program, converting HOV lanes to variable toll lanes on parts of the I-10 and I-110 debate has been fierce. In legacy media outlets, the debate has been over whether or not it is right or ethical for government to charge drivers for access to the lanes. In outlets devoted to transportation coverage, the debate has focused on a $3 monthly fee that ExpressLane transponder holders will incur if they drive in these lanes less than four times a month.