[Article] Car pool lanes not working

markpb

linky

Car pool lanes created to speed traffic along have become so clogged that the federal government has stepped in and told the state to get the lanes moving again.

Although some may be quick to pin the blame on the 85,000 hybrid cars now allowed to use the lanes because of their sky-high gas mileage, Caltrans officials say the state's burgeoning population is more likely the culprit.

After learning that the state's 1,380 miles of car pool lanes are out of federal compliance because cars are traveling too slowly in them, the California Department of Transportation is expected to come up with a strategy by Aug. 31 to get them moving again.

"We recognize that some segments of car pool lanes are congested," said Tamie McGowen, Caltrans spokeswoman. "We feel it's because of the population growth."

With more than 37 million people living in the state today, California's population is expected to increase by 500,000 each year for the next 30 years, according to the state Department of Finance.

Freeway congestion has worsened over the years because population growth has pushed more Californians into homes that they can afford and are fartheraway from their jobs.

And with all this driving, about 75 percent of the state's motorists make the trip to work alone each day. Only 11 percent carpool, according to a 2004 U.S. Census Bureau study.

Although High Occupancy Vehicle lanes were intended to spur car pooling, there's no proof that they have ever done that, said Peter Gordon, a professor of USC's School of Policy, Planning and Development.

Instead, HOV lanes are known as the family lanes because that's who often uses them. That use does not take many cars off the road, Gordon said.

"There's no evidence on the planet that car pool lanes have caused car pooling," Gordon said.

California's carpool lanes recently came under federal oversight after the state permitted single hybrid drivers to use them. As part of the agreement, Caltrans is required to file reports on these lanes with the Federal Highway Administration. That's how federal officials noticed cars were not moving fast enough in them.

Drivers in carpool lanes need to maintain a minimum 45 mph at least 90 percent of the time during rush hour for six months a year to meet federal guidelines.

Interesting, I'd have thought at least some people would have taken up car pooling if the facilities were available. Perhaps the cities in California are too dispersed for it to suit people?

invincibleirish

whats the train network like in california? i hear LA only got its first metro in the 1990s?

spacetweek

>because of their sky-high gas mileage
LOL - hybrid fuel economy isn't that great.

invincibleirish wrote:

whats the train network like in california? i hear LA only got its first metro in the 1990s?

Map.
It's a very small network for such a large city. First line only opened in 1990. They've 3 light rail lines and 1 subway line.

Roadspace is essentially a free good, cause you're not adequately charged for its use, taking all factors into account (social, environmental etc.). Adding carpool lanes further enhances the attraction of the road, causing it to attract even more traffic. Carpoolers are attracted by the HOV lane, while other users are attracted by the possibility of less traffic congestion due to the shift of cars into the HOV lane.

So the road simply fills with traffic even faster.

invincibleirish

invincibleirish wrote:

whats the train network like in california? i hear LA only got its first metro in the 1990s?

LA used to have one of the most extensive light rail networks in the US

LIke many other cities they disposed of trams in the second half of the 20th century.

Edit: on topic:

Car pooling would be more effective if there were strategically placed "park & share" car parks outside commuter towns on the roads leading into the big smoke. It would resolve the problem of people having to drive out of their way to pickup & drop off their sharers.

Del2005

Deleted User wrote:

Car pooling would be more effective if there were strategically placed "park & share" car parks outside commuter towns on the roads leading into the big smoke. It would resolve the problem of people having to drive out of their way to pickup & drop off their sharers.

And there would be no need for Car Pool lanes if they had Park and Ride out side towns:D

Del2005

Del2005 wrote:

And there would be no need for Car Pool lanes if they had Park and Ride out side towns:D

True, but I was referring to the people who live in commuterland and work on ind estates not serviced by busses or would need to change several times to get to their destination.

What I saw suggesting would reduce the number of cars on the feeder roads into the city.

In an ideal world the jobs would be in the same region as the people or vice versa, thus shorter commutes.

jjbrien

invincibleirish wrote:

whats the train network like in california? i hear LA only got its first metro in the 1990s?

LA still only has one metro. Outside of San Francisco there is little or no train network in california.

dowlingm

In Ontario there are some car pool carparks out in the sticks so rather than driving to each others house carpoolers can join up at a convenient location near the Highway with a HOV lane. HOV seems to be working here so far and more lanes are planned. No hybrid exception as in Cal.

dowlingm

dowlingm wrote:

In Ontario there are some car pool carparks out in the sticks so rather than driving to each others house carpoolers can join up at a convenient location near the Highway with a HOV lane. HOV seems to be working here so far and more lanes are planned. No hybrid exception as in Cal.

That's what I mean, share the main part of the journey without having to go round the houses picking up & dropping off people.

lostexpectation

didn't know car pooling was dependent on the speed they travel

de breeze

Interesting take on HOV's and car pooling in Sat's Irish Times:

For DC drivers stray slugs shorten long slog to work

DENIS STAUNTON

AMERICA: STROLL DOWNTOWN in Washington DC during the evening rush hour and you'll see lines of people standing at corners as if they are waiting for a bus or a taxi. Every few minutes, a car will roll up and two or three passengers will climb in and drive out to the Virginia suburbs with a complete stranger.

During the morning rush hour, similar scenes are played out at parking lots throughout northern Virginia, as thousands of commuters become what Washingtonians call "slugs". Slugs get a free ride to and from work but their drivers benefit too, cutting up to an hour off the daily commute by using high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes that are reserved for cars carrying at least three passengers.

Slugging has been a feature of Washington life since the early 1970s, when HOV lanes were introduced to encourage fuel saving during that decade's oil crisis. If a driver did not have enough passengers for the HOV, he would pull up to a line of commuters waiting for the bus and offer a lift to anybody who was going his way.

Word started to spread throughout the suburbs and more commuters began waiting at bus stops in the hope of a lift, often stepping back when the bus arrived. Bus drivers, frustrated as they drew up to stops and no passengers boarded, started referring to "fake passengers" or slugs, slang for counterfeit coins.

Over the years, snooty slugs have experimented with more dignified handles such as "instant car-pooler", "hitchhike commuter" and "casual car-pooler", but none has caught on.

Soaring fuel prices have seen slugging numbers grow in recent months as more commuters leave the car at home and rely on the kindness - and self-interest - of strangers to get to work.

Slugging is entirely unregulated by the government and has grown organically, but unofficial "slug lines" link specific suburbs with certain drop-off points in the city.

Drivers approaching a line of sluggers will often show a small card with a destination written on it or call out a destination, but most slug lines are like bus routes with just one starting point and a single destination. Rookie slugs can consult a website slug-lines.com for a current list of slug lines and tips on correct behaviour, but most commuters are already familiar with the etiquette of slugging.

The first rule is: don't speak until you're spoken to. Slugging home is not a cocktail party and nobody but the driver is expected to start a conversation. Nobody slugs to make friends and most commuters just want a quiet journey without having to keep a conversation going for half an hour.

If you do get talking, avoid politics, religion and sex, and stick to local news or harmless observations about traffic and the weather. Slugs should, of course, say "thank you" as they get into the car and when they leave.

Don't offer the driver money and don't give gifts. The driver needs slugs as much as they need the ride home and part of the joy of slugging lies in the knowledge that it is mutually beneficial.

Neither slugs nor drivers should eat, drink or smoke in the car and you should avoid using the phone except for very short calls to say you're on your way to your destination. Don't comb your hair or do your make-up in the car and slugs should not change the radio channel, adjust the air conditioning or open and close windows.

Slugs don't have to get into the first car that stops and slug chivalry demands that a woman should not be left standing alone in the line, especially at night. So if there are three people in line and a driver only needs two passengers, a male slug will give up his place rather than leave a woman standing alone.

There are no recorded cases of a slug coming to any harm, but women sometimes decline lifts if a car drives up with two men already inside. Drivers are expected to operate on a first-come, first-served basis and are discouraged from "body-snatching" - picking up stray passengers if there are too many cars waiting for slugs ahead of them.

Drivers have other obligations, notably to avoid strong scent, keep the music down and drive everyone to the designated drop-off point, rather than just stopping at home and expecting slugs to walk the rest of the way.

HydeRoad

The bus industry would collapse here if such a thing took hold.

Take an example. The 46A route is probably the most reliable, efficient and profitable bus route in the city, and there are many districts would love to have a 46A level of service.

It is reliable and efficient because by a stroke of fortune, it has a wide dual carriageway for most of it's length, with ample room for a decent bus lane. Many areas are not so lucky - think of the bottlenecks at Terenure, Inchicore, etc. In some cases, decent engineering could assist, but that's another issue.

Now can you imagine the Stillorgan Road, if hordes of cars flooded down the bus lane, picking up passengers from bus stops, while everyone stood back and let the buses pass. Straight away, Dublin Bus could not justify the numbers of buses, and they would be cut dramatically. With the bus lanes full of carpoolers, those buses that remain would take twice as long, losing even more reliability and custom. With rising fuel prices, it would become unviable to run buses at all.

There has to be a basic public transport infrastructure, even if many people prefer to bypass it and use their own private transport. The only way that infrastructure can be maintained, is that it is used, and run efficiently. Logic says, the more people use public transport, and the less private transport, the more efficient public transport will become.

The 46A works, and works well. It could work even better. Look at the massive traffic jams alongside the bus lanes every morning. Similar with many of the main bus corridors.

I am strenuously anti-carpooling. Not because I am a proponent of buses, or because I drive a taxi. That has nothing to do with it. I am a citizen of the city like anyone else, and on my own business, I like to be able to get around too. I think the small benefits of carpooling are grossly outweighed by the damage it would do.

We would cull a small number of cars from the roads. But the best way to do that, is to put in an inviting public transport infrastructure, and in the short term, that means buses and bus lanes that work. Anything that takes business away from those buses will increase their operating costs, and be ultimately detrimental to the service.

Fine Gael, in the 2002 general election, in the plethora of empty and ultimately fruitless promises they made to buy themselves into power, promised to introduce carpooling, and allow carpoolers into bus lanes. They obviously had an eye to buying the votes of drivers of expensive cars, too expensive to justify leaving them at home. Vote for us, and we will let you slip quietly into the bus lanes. DO you really think that by taking your wife and neighbours along for the ride, that every other citizen of the city would leave the bus lane empty for you? Of course not! They would all be flooding in there, too.

And who was going to stand alongside every bus lane in the city to count how many occupants were in each car? The bus service as we know it, for what it is worth, would have collapsed.

I will never in this generation vote Fianna Fáil, but if a Fine Gael candidate ever approaches me, I will be looking for their current stance on this issue.

de breeze

Just two points on the bus lanes:
There's no hard evidence I've seen that they are at all efficient. Observation indicates that even on N11 half the buses are below half-full even at peak. The bus companies are very slow to publish their data. Why?

I've suggested before that a user charge should be introduced for bus lanes which would drop as capacity utilisation increased. This would give a powerful incentive for the operators to achieve some level of efficiency which is missing at present.

Second point is that even if HOV lanes only resulted in a small decrease in traffic this could result in a big reduction in congestion. This is due to impact of overload reduction. Essentially this is what happens when schools are out. In this case a reduction of say 10% is sufficient to get below the 'tipping point' for junctions that in 'normal' conditions are overloaded and unable to cope.

HydeRoad

A properly designed bus corridor would be most efficient. In practice, our bus lanes fall far short, the Stillorgan Road being the best we can manage, in that at least it is continuous for a large part of the bus route.

The buses themselves can be far from efficient. The single biggest, most unforgiveable element of that is the grossly slow and inefficient fare collection system. The 46A bus is given miles of wide, safe bus lane to travel along, and the operator persists in holding those buses for inordinately long dwell times of up to three or four minutes at each stop during the peak, while as Alek would say, the biddies root for the pennies. This is an obscene waste of resources, time and efficiency. While the bus company clamours for more and extra buses, quarter of the buses on that route alone could be saved if those buses spent no longer than minimally necessary for intending passengers to board and move swiftly along the bus. Fifteen minutes could be saved over the entire journey, given reduced dwell times, and better junction priority, removing a few ill designed pinch points. Such an initiative would work wonders for public transport usage. Yet we persist with 1950s operating standards for 21st century requirements.

As regards HOV lanes, unless there were ample room for HOV lanes alongside bus lanes, for which no space in Dublin exists, the very fact of HOV lanes would interfere with the operation of the public transport system. That alone is a reason to avoid it. In my book, public transport carries far more priority than HOV traffic. If one interferes with the other, the more important of the two should get absolute priority.

monument

spacetweek wrote: »

Map.
It's a very small network for such a large city. First line only opened in 1990. They've 3 light rail lines and 1 subway line.

There was apparently a lot of trouble getting their metro rail projects off the ground in the first place (objectors etc), but it looks like they have made good progress since 1990.