Some cool to HOT lanes

How much are you willing to pay to escape gridlock during rush hour? Five dollars? Ten? That’s what motorists in other nearby states are forking over to drive on toll lanes to avoid the bottlenecks, headaches and aggravations of bumper-to-bumper traffic.

But the actual costs for drivers in Arizona remain unknown — even as two major proposals that would convert existing car pool lanes into toll lanes make their way through the Legislature.

With the state’s population exploding, Arizona drivers are spending more and more time stuck in slow-moving traffic. And as HOV lanes stack up, local transportation experts question whether there would be any benefits to converting them to High Occupancy/ Toll (HOT) lanes for drivers willing to pay a fee to speed up their trips.

The toll would be charged to drivers alone in their cars who clearly don’t meet the HOV lane minimum requirement of at least two occupants. But those in car pools could continue to use the lane for free.

A review of similar programs in nearby states, including California and Texas, show the costs of these HOT lanes can add up quickly. For example, it costs commuters in Orange County, Calif., $9 to drive a 10-mile stretch of road during peak rush hours.

“It can get real pricey if you use it all the time,” said Kirk Avila, general manager for the 91 Express Lanes. Most commuters use the toll lane once or twice week.

The plan has helped relieve some traffic by getting vehicles out of the normal lanes, he said, and drivers like to know the option is there in case they need to get somewhere in a hurry.

The Orange County model is similar to the one put forth by Arizona Republican senators, including the chairman and the vice chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee: Ron Gould of Lake Havasu and Pam Gorman of Anthem, respectively.

Buses and those in car pools could still drive free in the HOT lane, but single drivers would be charged a fee that would vary depending on traffic volume. The more backed-up traffic becomes, the more costly it would be to drive the toll lane.

“There’s no way I’d pay nine bucks,” said Gould, referring to the Orange County pricing structure.

While Gould doesn’t know how much drivers would be charged, he believes it wouldn’t be more than $4 to $5 during rush hours.

That’s in line with a 2002 study by the Parsons Transportation Group, which examined the feasibility of HOT lanes for the Arizona Department of Transportation and the Maricopa County Association of Governments.

Drivers would pay an average of about $3 to use the toll lanes on most Valley freeways during peak travel times, the study projected. On the more congested Valley roads, though, drivers could be charged nearly $5.

There’s money to be made, too. The study estimated some stretches of toll lanes could bring in as much as $20 million in annual net revenue. Gould was unsure where that money would go.

However, he said he’d prefer that any private company in charge of the program be limited to collecting 10 percent of the profit.

But the idea of turning the HOV lanes into toll lanes is receiving a cool reception from some commuters using car pools from the East Valley into Phoenix on a regular basis.

Debbie Tooker, 55, described it as a “classist” idea because it benefits the rich.

“Why should they get an easy way out when the rest of us can’t afford to?” said Tooker, a Gilbert resident who has used car pools for most of the past four years.

Heather Bake, also a Gilbert resident who commutes to Phoenix, is among those critical of the proposal. She said the HOV lanes already are backing up and converting them to HOT lanes won’t help.

Bake also questioned how the state would police the lanes for cheaters in the HOV lane who don’t have any passengers, despite the lane’s minimum requirement of two.

“I don’t see how they’re going enforce this. There’s already ... a lot of drivers using the (HOV) lane when they shouldn’t,” she said.

Local traffic experts agree the HOV lanes are getting full. Eric Anderson, a spokesman for the Maricopa Association of Governments, said with that, he’s unsure whether such toll lanes would make a big difference in relieving traffic.

Supporters of HOT lanes argue they benefit drivers who don’t pay to drive on them because it takes paying drivers out of the regular lanes — freeing up traffic.

Robert W. Poole Jr., founder of the libertarian think tank Reason Foundation, supports building HOT lanes because pricing is a way to regulate traffic flow.

“The car pool lane itself is not a sustainable longtime policy,” said Poole, whose nonprofit foundation is based in Los Angeles. “There is no way to limit the number of vehicles in these lanes.”

Poole said market-driven prices that fluctuate according to the volume of traffic congestion is a way to limit the number of drivers in the toll lane and free up traffic.

Poole, a longtime transportation policy analyst, has examined traffic trends in the Valley and warned it needs to do something soon before it turns into another Los Angeles.

He estimated Valley drivers spend about 50 hours a year sitting in traffic. But with the state’s population expected to double during the next two decades, drivers will find themselves stuck in traffic even longer. Poole projected that a 30-minute commute today will extend into 50 minutes by 2030.

Keeping pace with the growth requires billions of dollars invested in road construction, he said, but “it’s unlikely that (ADOT) can afford to add the number of lanes needed.”

Poole advocates HOT lanes as a possible solution.

But opponents argue there is hidden detriment to creating such lanes: the environment.

Diane Brown is executive director of Arizona Public Interest Research Group, a public policy organization pushing for tougher pollution-control measures in HOV lanes to encourage people to use car pools and drive low-emission vehicles.

“Allowing someone to use an HOV lane just because they have the financial means — that’s a step in the wrong direction,” she said. “You’re basically shifting the problem from one lane to another and taking away an incentive to improve public health.”