If you use I-405, you may need to find a new friend or start saving money for a toll in order to use the HOV lanes next year. Earlier this month, it was reported that Reema Griffith, the director of the Washington State Transportation Commission, is beginning talks in Olympia to change the carpool requirements on 405 from two people to three people. However, the proposed occupancy requirements would allow drivers to use the carpool lanes without meeting the three person requirement if they pay for a toll.
Of the current HOV lane situation, Griffith claims that “during peak periods, it’s failing… it’s stopping. It’s congested just like the general purpose lanes.” According to Griffith, the only option is to tighten restrictions on the lanes and impose tolls, between SR 522 and I-5 in Lynwood, to those already in place on State Route 167 between Auburn and Renton. Express toll lanes like the ones in use on SR-167 save drivers an average of 8 minutes in their commute.
Some are wary that this plan will lead to restricting access to all carpool lanes on 405. Or, that the plan could even lead to all roads becoming toll roads. Griffith claims that there is no need to expand these increased restrictions to any other areas at the moment, but will be addressing certain stretches of freeway on a case-by-case basis.
The commission in Olympia that is looking into this proposal is still in the early stages of discussion and will have a more concrete plan by the end of November. Additionally, they will be holding public meetings and taking public comment through January.
Give me a freakin break! These people drive me insane! They have their heads where the sun don’t shine. I am sick to death of the incompetence of all those involved in transportation in this state for the last 20+ years! We have a major transportation nightmare because some green idiot did not want to build a single additional lane for traffic. Instead, the “plan” was to force everyone on to public transportation and spending all transportation revenue on mass transit. And that has not worked out very well for anyone, especially those of us who paid the freakin taxes for this nonsense, incompetent, transportation “plan”. They should all be fired. Go talk to Kemper Freeman if you want to know how to fix this. He does not work for the government. That’s why he knows what he is talking about.
Why would anyone ask Kemper Freeman, Jr., about how to fix traffic congestion? He walks to work!
Higher HOV requirements during peak-use hours, and tolls for peak use, are exactly the type of user fees we should use to reduce congestion. (Funny how people who always claim to want government to be “run more like a business,” always scream when the government starts charging what the market will bear.)
Except HOT lanes do virtually nothing to reduce congestion, even make it worse with limited access that creates choke points. And there is no “what the market will bear” with government. They ARE the market, there’s no competition. They charge what they want and to hell with anybody that doesn’t like it. Any private business that charged you to use something you already paid for wouldn’t be in business very long.
“Except HOT lanes do virtually nothing to reduce congestion, even make it worse…”
Citation needed.
I don’t care if you need a citation. Anybody that thinks SR167 is better since HOT lanes came into being is a liberal fool that wants to enrich an Arizona company
Any assertion made without evidence may be dismissed without evidence. (Your contemptuous attitude toward anyone who asks the basis for your opinions says more than any other statement you have made.)
But, by all means, keep proclaiming your opinions to be facts, and that anyone who dares ask for actual evidence is “a liberal fool.” I’m sure you’ll get lots of support for your proposals that way. (And if you don’t, you can always come here and whine about how unrealistic and irrational liberals are.)
Okay, I’ll dismiss your assertion that HOT lanes are exactly the kind of user fees we need to drive on roads we already paid for since you offered no citations of evidence. Save the lawyer talk for somebody else. You’ve probably never been on SR167 before or after the HOT lane fiasco. Anybody that proclaims tolls on the 167 are a success is an ATS shill posting from the den of his rambler in Tempe.
The tolls on 167 work great….for a company in Arizona. For the state, not so much. They’ll work even better the length of 405…for that same company in Arizona.
Many people who commute on 405 live further out because they can’t afford the high cost of housing in Kirkland and Bellevue. Therefore they are being tapped again for more money, the reason they left the area in the first place. Government’s fix for everything is to charge more money for their failed plans.
So, there’s a problem with the free market which requires government intervention in housing? Do tell!
No it is the government intervention that is increasing prices and shutting people out of the housing market. Try to keep up. I know it is hard for you being a socialist and all.
Building of I-405 was government intervention, so all else is commentary. The purpose of I-405 was to be a bypass around Seattle; developers built the sprawl around it which turned it into a parking lot. If the WSDOT wants to restore I-405 to the original purpose with tolls and HOT/HOV lane expansion, that’s an idea worth considering.
Washington highways will have “rich lanes” and “poor lanes”. Thanks Olympia.
You mean thanks Democrats… remember, they have been in control for about 40 years now – time to change that!!
You could blame the dems, if it weren’t for the fact that the bills that brought HOV-toll lanes to I-167 had bipartisan support.
Why do you believe these people care about facts? They’re going to blame the Democrats for the years when the Republican majorities in our legislature neglected to maintain public roads, the bill for which has now come due.
My solution to this is I am closing my business on February 27th and moving it to Post Falls, ID.
The new building is ready and we are in the process of moving our equipment there now.
I have had enough of Washington…….actually far more than enough…..