Congestion Pricing

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.

In 2008, when Metro first proposed experimenting with converting High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV Lanes) lanes to High Occupancy Toll Lanes (HOT Lanes) a casual observer might have thought the future of the Republic was endangered. Editorial boards sounded the alarm, the Times' Tim Rutton wrote a series of semi-coherent opinion pieces, Metro Board members warned of class warfare and a group of Congress Members made a silly video (no longer available online) and warned they would pull Metro funding if they went forward.

On November 10, the I-110 ExpressLanes, a type of "congestion pricing" or HOT Lane System, will open on the I-110 from just South of the 91 Freeway going north all the way to just South of the I-10. Early next year, the similar lanes will open on the I-10. In both cases, single-occupancy vehicles will be allowed into what are currently high occupancy or low-emission vehicle lanes (HOV Lanes) for a small cost per mile which will vary pending congestion conditions. If there is too much congestion in the ExpressLane, then it will be closed to all but the carpoolers.

Earlier this week, Metro and Caltrans broke ground on the I-10 and I-110 to convert HOV Lanes into variable toll lanes that also allow carpools free access to the lanes.  Metro received $210 million for the project from the federal government, most of which will go into transit improvements for the impacted corridors.  The project removes almost no cars (only the very few that are electric or zero emission) that can currently use the carpool lanes, but will charge solo car drivers somewhere between twenty-five cents and $1.40 per mile.

One of the major concerns many people have with Metro's ExpressLanes project, which will convert HOV Lanes on parts of the I-10 and I-110 to variable toll lanes, is that the carpoolers who currently use those lanes will lose their incentive to carpool.  Metro addressed those concerns when they announced that carpool drivers would be allowed to continue to use those lanes.  However, those concerns were rekindled when news broke that Metro will charge $3 per month for using the transponder needed to legally access the lanes.

Thanks to a new report being presented to the Metro Board of Directors later this month, a clearer picture is emerging on how drivers will be able to access the variable toll lanes on the I-10 and I-110 as part of Metro's "Express Lanes" program.  The plan to turn High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lanes into High Occupancy and Toll (HOT) Lanes on these two highways has drawn criticism from both conservatives who see it as double-taxation and liberals who see it as creating a two-tiered transportation system.

Just in the nick of time, as the congestion pricing debate heats up again in Los Angeles, our friends at Streetfilms released Moving Beyond the Automobile: Congestion Pricing.  The value of Streetfilms could hardly be better illustrated than by comparing "MBA: Congestion Pricing" to this piece by KTLA on the same issue. Here's a hint, the KTLA piece doesn't even mention the idea of creating a "congestion free lane of traffic."

Congressman Gary Miller (R-OC) and Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-LA) have teamed up to try and stop Metro's "Express Lanes" project to allow single-passenger vehicles to buy their way in to the carpool lane on the I-10 and I-110 HOV Lanes.  Just as we did with the bike lanes opinion piece in City Watch yesterday, it's important to take a look at the arguments against congestion pricing, because we're going to start seeing them a lot in the press.

Metro has some pretty big plans on what to do with the federal funds they’re receiving to pilot a congestion pricing plan on two Los Angeles freeways.  But one plan for Adams Boulevard in South Los Angeles has some locals scratching their heads.  At the same time that the CRA is proposing a pedestrian makeover … Continued