CA 91-WEST: HOT dropped because of bureaucracy

Lanes under construction for HOV west of 91-Xprs will be opened late 1999 as HOV lanes, without any toll buy-in for non-HOVs. Staff of Orange Co Transp Authority (OCTA) had initally recommended making the facility free for HOV3s and flexible toll pricing for single and 2 occupant vehicles. Their rationale was HOV3 alone would see the lanes considerably underutilized while HOV2 would see the lanes overloaded and bogged down. They said the facility would be best managed with HOT.

They have not retreated from that position but said they found they were unable to get all the necessary environmental studies and other permits and toll equipment installed in time for an opening late 99. They proposed instead that HOT be studied for implementation on lane additions to the north-south CA-57 (the Orange Fwy).

The proposed 91-West HOT (see TRnl#18 Aug 97 p11) was studied by Parsons Transp which concluded the project was feasible. Unlike 91-Xprs which has no intermediate entries the 91-West project (extending 18km from CA-55 the end of the 91-Xprs project past several interchanges to the Los Anegles Co line) it was a complex scheme with single buffered concurrent flow lanes and multiple entry and exit points and 3 sets of dedicated HOV/HOT ramps at interchanges with CA-57 and I-5 and 3 e-toll points.

Since the recommendations for the toll buy-in were made in July the subject has come under attack on two grounds. One is plain emotional anti-pricing ideology. Todd Spitzer a local politician articulated this at the OCTA meeting Nov 10: “The concept of charging people to use a road that they have already paid for (with taxes) is unconscionable. I think it is outrageous. I see a slippery slope. We are creating a transp model where only people who can pay, can play.”

Spitzer voted against studies of applying HOT on CA-57 but he was in a minority on that.

Another strain of the attack on HOT has come from HO-skeptics including Jack Mallinckrodt, a local transp modeller whose results show that congestion and pollution will be minimized by opening extra lanes unrestricted. HOV3 he concludes will be by far the worst. HOT will be somewhat better than HOV3 but not as good as having all lanes balanced with either HOV2 clogged, or unrestricted, which models best of all.

“Unrestricted mixed flow is best in all respects,” he concludes in a paper called “Effectivness of HOT lanes on the 91 Fwy.”

This is similar to the conclusions reached by Joy Dahlgren of Berkeley’s Inst of Transp Studies who did the mathematics of HOV and mixed lanes under a variety of traffic conditions and UC Davis’ Robert Johnson in modelling for the Sacramento region.

The ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER newspaper has taken up these criticisms of HOV generally calling the OCTA stance ostrich-like: “OCTA is acting as if there were no serious discussions among experts about the wisdom of HOV strategies.” It suggested that the new lanes be opened experimentally to all vehicles for a specified period, then trialled as HOV lanes and the results compared.

“OCTA might butress its credibility with taxpayers if it began to treat the issue of carpool lane effectiveness not as dogma demanding genuflection, but as the debatable question it is, one sorely in need of open-minded testing and exploration.” (Contacts Dave Elbaum OCTA 714 560 6282 Jack Mallinckrodt 714 544 3200)