Calgary Considering More Carpool Lanes
January 21st, 2009
Ald. John Mar requested last September that a study be conducted on High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, which are more commonly known as carpool lanes. The study is now in the hands of the Land Use and Transportation Committee. For everybody’s sake, I hope the study reveals that HOV lanes will not work in Calgary.
“We don’t physically have the capacity to add more lanes in this city,” said Ald. John Mar. “The overall benefit from these lanes is that we’ll reduce the amount of congestion.”
Mar incorrectly assumes that HOV lanes magically reduces congestion. You see, in a perfect world the carpool lane would be filled with cars all carrying multiple passengers. Lanes that permit Single Occupant Vehicles (SOV) would have far less congestion since everyone is now carpooling. Vehicle emissions would be lower, the grass will be greener, the air will be cleaner and we’ll all feel great about ourselves.
Unfortunately, this is the real world. We drive because it is convenient. If my neighbor worked near me and at the same time, we would carpool (really, we would!). Adding a carpool lane to roads that I travel on will not convince me to carpool with someone. I’ll stick to driving on the SOV lane. In fact, most people would just drive on the SOV lane or risk a ticket by taking a quick dip on the empty HOV lane. HOV lanes cripple capacity on existing road networks. They INCREASE congestion and the people that end up using it (legally) would have carpooled anyway even without the HOV lane. Take a look around you during rush hour and try to find a vehicle with more than one occupant. Repeat this exercise during non-peak travel times and you’ll probably notice that there are more vehicles with multiple occupants outside of rush hour.
“I’m anxious to see what the recommendations are. One (road) that I certainly hope that is being looked at is Deerfoot Trail,” Mar said.
Our rookie Alderman makes another mistake. Adding a HOV lane to Deerfoot Trail would be ineffective and would make the road much more unsafe. First off, there are too many exits spaced far too close together. If the HOV lane is located in the far left lane, cars travelling in the HOV lane would have to move 3 lanes over to exit and vehicles entering Deerfoot Trail would have to move across 3 lanes of traffic to get onto it. If the HOV lane is located in the far right lane (like the Center Street HOV lanes) then vehicles on the SOV lanes that want to turn off Deerfoot Trail would have to pass through the HOV lane (accident waiting to happen because of the speed differential) and likewise for traffic entering Deerfoot Trail.
I mentioned the speed differential on my first point against HOV lanes on Deerfoot Trail. HOV lanes that are not separated from SOV lanes with a barrier create a dangerous speed differential. During rush hour when vehicles in SOV lanes are congested, vehicles travelling in relatively empty HOV lanes will be going much faster than those in the SOV lanes. Vehicles trying to get onto the HOV lanes will have trouble, and so will vehicles trying to get out of the HOV lane. These speed differentials have resulted in accident rates going up by over 10% on some Texas highways resulting in costly construction projects to separate the HOV lanes with physical barriers. The bad news for Calgary is that because our exits are so closely spaced together, it is not feasible to physically separate the HOV lane.
So, are there any candidates for a HOV lane in Calgary? Aside from a small stretch of Deerfoot Trail outside of the city limits just north (Airdrie to Calgary) and just south (Okotoks to Calgary) I don’t really see any long free-flowing stretches of road to add a HOV lane to. The only roads that HOV lanes should be introduced on are those of the 3 lane variety. That leaves basically Crowchild Trail, Macleod Trail and 16th Avenue. I don’t think a HOV lane would work on any of these roads.
What do you think? Is there a possibility that I’m completely wrong and that HOV lanes will in fact work here in Calgary?
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I do not see this working well at all. our roadways are just to old to be able to “retrofit” an extra lane into them now…And we can’t afford to give up one lane to the HOV lane…
I would much rather them take the money and continue to maintain our roads. Downside, is our winters that take their massive toll onto smooth roads. I mean already look at the work they did on Deerfoot. It’s already got frost heaves and humps haha…
If they DID have an HOV, I would like to see motorcycles allowed to use them.
For example, California.
when i drove in LA, this was a dream
but like mentioned above.. in calgary
dont see it working very wel..
Well since I already carpool regardless of the way the road is organized.. im of course going to vote for a HOV.
Why wouldn’t I?
California also allows Hybrids use HOV lanes.
HOV in our city is useless. If the city wants to be serious in cutting back congestion, they should think about a VASTLY expanded public transit system. If I was able to move around to places I needed to go without needing my car, it would be perfect! (eg. 1 hour 45 mins for work on transit, 10-20 mins in car)
Wish the city would stop wasting money on such pointless matters such as this and put the coin towards finishing the ring road, and expanding the LRT lines.
Well the HOV lanes are awsome if they are made when the road is built.. not trying to retro fit to current roads.. and for the 2 persons HOV.. that is retarded.. make it at least a 3 person HOV like the lower mainland has.. The only place in calgary a HOV would be good is on the Derrfoot, other then that is pointless.. but in a city like ours there isnt a point in makeing a HOV since they are many many routes you can take home t avoid the traffic jams.. well maybe they will put a HOV on the ring road?
Ive seen these things in Vancouver and they were great. If people have a great enough incentive to carpool, they will. So by reducing the number of non-carpool lanes and making life easy for carpoolers people will be enticed to carpool. Its true that on the first few months after the HOV lanes are created they may have low uptake, but as people see the incentive and optimize their life they will begin to be used. Also this will help the transit system as buses would presumably use the lane.
just my 3 c.
When we drove in Seattle, these were so convenient to use (we were a family of 4 every time.) Sometimes it’s great when it wasn’t full, sometimes it was faster to stick to the SOV lanes and just hit the gas.
You already mentioned why Calgary can’t have HOV lanes and that’s the exit issue. In Seattle, each exit is ~3-4 miles apart, which gives you ample time to make decisions. In Calgary, there’s exits every 3-4 kilometers which is quite tight to make 3 lane changes. Given the fact that some Calgarians are quite… “aggressive” in their driving, this is just a bad idea.
It’ll work for city-to-city connections though (Calgary to x)
Well it would be a great idea only if we had the infrastructure to back it…
Like in CA you have roads on top of roads, bridges, etc… for HOV lanes… here in Calgary… you’ll cutting 3 lanes down to 2 and you’ll just piss more people off like myself because I could carpool but because everyone have a different lifestyle I’m not going to spend my day as a taxi driver and drive my “carpool buddies” around.
I say instead of the HOV lanes… develop and invest more money into the public transit system. Our transit system is by far already the best in the west maybe not comparable to Vancouver or European establishments its still “good”. Though it does have its own flaws but if we can invest more money into our public transit it should make life a lot better on the deerfoot.
Ramp meters are MUCH more effective at reducing congestion on freeways than HOV lanes, and likely, they’re a lot easier to implement. Ramp meters are basically a traffic light (with green or red, no yellow) that permits, or delays large groups of cars from flooding merge lanes and ramps onto freeways. By limiting the number of vehicles, and the frequency by which they try to enter the freeway, they increase the overall flow of the freeway.
This could really work on a lot of our Deerfoot ramps! They’re easy to implement and don’t cause disruption or confusion.
HOV lane can be converted to HOT lane. So SOV can use these lane by paying the toll in case of emergency. in this way the efficiency of the HOV lane can be increased but if HOV lane is degraded then HOT lane will not work
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