hot

2013-03-11: We try to keep it simple: a 'toll lane' is any lane in which a toll is collected. And it's Express. But serious classifiers and afficionados have a heap of acronyms that generate hottles, ettles, tottles, bolles, tells and even hovels. Toll lanes come in many and changing shapes even within these acronymnal classes.

2012-04-24: Georgia's I-85 Express Lanes in their sixth month of operation continue to show strong growth in traffic with a stable average toll rate of around $1.20/trip. In March weekday trips averaged 16.8 thousand (k) 2.3 times the 7.3k in October last year, the first full month of operations of the high occupancy/toll lane.

Colorado DOT's tolling arm HPTE has issued an RFQ for a toll concession on 23 miles, 37km of I-25 and US36 Denver-Boulder. The concession is to toll and operate a mix of existing HOT lanes (carpoolers, buses and toll payers), HOT lanes starting construction, and HOT lanes to be constructed under the 50-year concession.

The project involves:

The launch of managed toll lanes this week on I-85 northeast of Atlanta was so mismanaged that the state Governor intervened after three days and very publicly ordered changes.  For three nights TV, radio and the press in Atlanta reported the fiasco of noticeably worse congestion in the general purpose lanes alongside almost empty "Express" or toll managed lanes on the big highway northeast out of Atlanta, the first in a huge proposed network.

The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) in the Phoenix area is looking for consultants to examine the feasibility of toll concessions to fund toll-managed or HOT lanes in the Phoenix metro area.  This follows enabling legislation for public private partnerships.

Virginia secretary of transportation Sean Connaughton says I-66 is a "great candidate" for HOT/toll lanes, and he says the department has a team studying the concept. As soon as he was appointed secretary in the summer when the new Republican administration won office he directed the department to look at "HOT" or toll lanes, he says.

Regional government in the San Francisco Bay area and the associated public toll authority are now committed to an extensive network of tolled lanes - some 1300km or 800 miles of tolled lanes to be developed out of an existing and planned high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane network at a capital cost of about $4.8b.

Branded "95 EXPRESS" a pair of toll express lanes started tolling 6am Friday Dec 5 northbound on I-95 between FL836 near downtown Miami and the Golden Glades Interchange, a distance of about 13km (8 miles). Southbound twin lanes will be tolling in about a year and the lanes more than doubled in length by late 2010.