HOV lanes finally open on the QEW
With the Greater Toronto Area having one of the world’s longest commutes (an average of 80 minutes), weary travellers may welcome news that the QEW has finally opened its high-occupancy vehicle lanes between Trafalgar Road and Guelph Line (somehow, the definition of “high occupancy” here is “more than one person”). Studies have shown that HOV lanes on Highway 403 and Highway 404 have cut commute times by about 12 minutes and that the average rush hour speed in HOV lanes is higher (100 kilometres per hour, an increase over 60 kilometres per hour), not to mention the environmental benefits of carpooling. Of course, the people who will be most relieved with this development are those drivers who have endured three years of construction along the QEW so that the HOVs could go in.
(Image: Doug Kerr)
Imagine if most of the commuters would be part of a carpool…it would be so much easier to get into the city. I tried the carbon dioxide and driving cost calculator of the carpooling network ( http://www.carpoolingnetwork.com ) and they suggest huge savings: up to 2000$ and 1,5 tons of GHG per year.
HOV lanes (though a good idea and stand somewhat behind the principle of them which is to lessen the carbon footprint) do not make as much a go green impact on the environment as some may think.
The alternative and much more impactful solution would be to make it simply an additional lane.
Consider this…
1. They are underutilized; How much does an HOV lane truely drive car pooling behaviour? I would bet it is a very small percentage of commuters.
Why?
– The typical 9-5 work day is in the past as too many of us working folks are leaving early for kids, or staying late because of a meeting, or making other stops on the commutes i.e. shopping, client office visits, etc… that do not allow us to car pool on a regular basis.
– Not too many people likely have any neighbours or family living near them that work near them that would make this worth while.
2. Lack of Safety – I have witnessed near collisions a couple times already in first few days of operation on QEW. Drivers simply are not following the rules of where to enter and exit this HOV lane and now have 4 lanes to cross over in a short distance to get to their exit ramp.
Also of those that are on it they are either doing the speed limit and causing others to become too agreesive or the opposite with others travelling well over the posted speed limit.
This is why in USA the HOV lanes are given a safety barrier from other lanes and the HOV have their own entry and exit ramps.
The better solution for the environment and driver sanity would be to make the QEW HOV lane through Burlington/Oakville simply an additional lane.
Will overall reduce drive time by likely 25% (3 lanes to 4) for that specific distance of travel.
And let us not forget the reason for the increased drive times is due to…
a: population increase meaning more tax dollars that could and should be spent the right way to reduce some of our traffic congestion
b: Hwy 403 extensions into QEW years ago and yet nothing aside from just recently added HOV lanes has been done. Think about it 2 hwys merch into 1 hwy and just simply adding 1 HOV lane 10+ years after the fact on a small stretch of hwy to offset this…really?
c: Burlington and Hamilton road extensions paid for by tax payers now just sold off to HWY 407 investors. Our tax dollars made into governement one time sell-off deal and yet those profits not re-invested to help solve our traffic congestion issues. So all we have is an overpriced toll hwy that even if desire to use does not apply to those who drive into T.O city core.
What is our alternatives
– Car Pool (maybe…not)
– Go Train (oh yeah because schedules and parking are adequate enough…not) and besides is not the alternative for many do to multi distination points.
To wrap things up I leave you with one word…Unbelievable!
Agree with above post 100%.
The other thing (I think) that still applies is the keep right except to pass law in the Highway Traffic Act. At 2am, for example, when all the other lanes are empty, you should not be in the HOV lanes just because you have two or more people in your vehicle.
However, as anyone who regularly drives GTA highways knows, lane discipline is a lost cause on 90% of the drivers. I think the OPP should concentrate on enforcing the keep right law instead of using the new HOV lanes as a convienient fishing hole.
what I really don’t like is that the QEW westbound at Brant St was restriped so the w/b HOV lane exits directly into what was previously the fast “inside” lane. As a result, the right lane, which was a through lane, now exits at Brant St. Drivers heading to w/b 403 now have one extra lane change and have to force their way into a lane shared with Niagara bound drivers.
HOV is misuse of resources in my opinion. Many times, the HOV lane is empty or sparse, when the other two lanes are congested or much slower. I understand HOV has a good intention in trying to encourage carpool. But saving gas is by far the dominating reason for people to carpool. If two people find it convenient for them to go to work together, then they probably would carpool to save on gas. If it’s not convenient, like one person might not be reliable with time or they don’t want feel obligated to talk to the other person, then they probably wouldn’t carpool even if it means spending more on gas.
But no two people who like to enjoy the morning commute alone would carpool because they get to use the HOV lane so they can get to work a little earlier. So exclusive use of the HOV lane is not going to push the decision to the other side, when gas saving is not incentive enough. So in reality, HOV doesn’t reduce the number of cars on the road, it just rearranges them, so a few cars get to go faster who would carpool anyway without HOV, but most cars are forced to go slower with a lower MPG. That’s worse for the environment.
Nathan
http://www.imperfecteconomy.com