HOT LANES:Houston Metro Extending HOT Lanes

The Katy Fwy project for HOV-2 buy-in is named QuickRide and has only been scantily marketed. It looks to be more a modest customer-service option and a traffic management tool than a moneymaker. The Katy I-10 it has attracted only 200 to 300 patrons/day and the revenue at $2/toll just covers operating expenses. But the buy-in option is popular, often saving patrons 10 to 20mins during the period when HOV-3/free is in effect and it takes a few vehicles out of the unrestricted lanes alongside. The scheme is accepted, and there would be strong protest from its patrons if it were discontinued.

US-290’s similar single-lane reversible HOV, which extends 21km (13mi) from the I-610 Loop to TX-6, is producing the same dilemmas as the I-10 HOVL. At HOV-2 the US-290 HOVL had been carrying 1600 veh/hr in the peak hour 7-8am, and was becoming seriously overloaded with flow breaking down and no time-saving as compared to the unrestricted lanes. So from July 99 an HOV-3 requirement was instituted. But as on the Katy and other HOVLs the US-290 HOVL is out of the frying pan of overload and into the fire of empty-lane syndrome.

“When we were at 1600 veh/hr we had only about 100 HOV-3s. We’ve got about 200 extra HOV-3s in that 7-8am peak hour when only HOV-3s are allowed, but of course we’ve now got a lot of spare capacity,” Barnes says. Metro, the transit agency administers the HOVL system in Houston and it needs a formal agreement with Texas DOT which owns the highways before toll buy-in can be instituted on US-290. Metro runs about 50 buses in the HOVL in the AM rush hour. There are three intermediate T-ramp direct connectors for access/egress on the facility at Pinemont, Little York, and NW Station at West Rd with several transit centers and park-&-rides.

US-290 is already equipped with electronic toll tag readers, installed as part of Transtar, the area’s traffic management center, so the toll buy-in will only require software changes and marketing.

It seems quite likely toll-buy-in will be extended to two other corridors: (1) I-45/N, the Northern Fwy, and (2) the Southwest Fwy US-59/S. Also single lane barrier-separated reversibles, these are also getting heavily congested as HOV-2s, but are likely to go from flood to drought if pure HOV-3 is instituted.

Also the I-10 Katy HOVLs are being extended another 8km (5mi) westward as a pair of concurrent flow lanes beyond the present 22km (14mi) and a nice pair of downtown connectors are being built – both of which might increase ridership.

The Katy project was assisted with federal funds under what is now termed the value pricing program but these expired at the end of 1999, and the program is self-supporting. Texas Transp Institute has been employed as an evaluator. (Contact Chris Barnes, Houston Metro 713 615 6489 CBarnes@hou-metro.harris.tx.us, Bill Stockton TTI 512 467 0946 bill-stockton@tamu.edu)