Tolls could open HOV lanes to solo drivers - Dallas, Houston exploring options for pay as you go

By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER - The Dallas Morning News - Friday, July 27, 2007
SUGAR LAND, Texas – Psychologist Anthony Rogers regularly finds himself working in Houston – driving solo and stuck in traffic.

Car-poolers and buses zip by in the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes, only furthering his stop-and-go frustration.

"I look over at the HOV lanes and think, 'There's plenty of room over there. I'd be willing to pay to use that lane,' " Mr. Rogers, a San Antonio resident, said as he finished a cup of Starbucks in this booming suburb south of Houston.

He may soon be able to do just that. And by next year, some Dallas drivers will, too.

On Thursday, the Texas Transportation Commission gave a hearty amen to Houston-area transit officials' plan to convert five of their six HOV lanes to tolled lanes.

If the plan is approved – and it could be presented to the commission as soon as next month – solo drivers in Harris County, like Mr. Rogers, will be able to pay for an easier commute.

Dallas catching up

HOV lanes are less common in Dallas than in Houston, where their use has steadily expanded for nearly 20 years. But the Dallas area is catching up fast. New HOV lanes will open on Interstate 30 from the Dallas-Tarrant county line to Loop 12 at 6 a.m. Tuesday. Other HOV lanes are set to open this fall along Central Expressway, and an existing lane on the LBJ Freeway will be extended by September, Dallas Area Rapid Transit officials said.

Plans to make Dallas-area HOV lanes paid lanes are in the works. By next year, HOV lanes along I-30 between Arlington and Dallas will become the region's first such paid lanes, TxDOT spokesman Mark Ball said.

Houston plan praised

But Houston's more sweeping proposal to convert all but one of its lanes to pay-as-you-go won enthusiastic response from the Texas Transportation Commission at its meeting in Sugar Land on Thursday.

"This is very visionary, and I think the rest of the state will be watching," said Commissioner Hope Andrade of San Antonio. Other commissioners had similar reactions.

The commission sets highway policy in Texas and governs the Texas Department of Transportation.

The conversion in Houston could cost $50 million and take a year or more, and officials from METRO, the Harris County counterpart to DART, haven't formally decided to make the switch. But plans to do so are far along.


Strong endorsement

Carlos Lopez, traffic operations director for TxDOT, told the commissioners Thursday that a formal request could appear on their agenda as early as August.

"It's almost a no-brainer," Mr. Lopez said after the meeting. HOV lanes have extra capacity, he said, so they should be monetized to let solo drivers pay to use them. Drivers in the regular lanes will benefit, he said, because the paying drivers will be gone.


Dallas-area officials haven't indicated what they'll charge drivers on the new HOV lanes along I-30 when they become paid lanes next year. Lone drivers will likely pay twice as much as two-person car-poolers, and vehicles with three or more passengers will be free, DART officials have said in the past.


It won't be cheap

Solo drivers in Houston will pay a steep price to ride on the HOV lanes.

Mr. Lopez said they'll likely pay as much as $4.50 each way during peak hours. During less busy times, it may be as low as $1.25, he said.

Mr. Lopez cautioned, however, that rates will depend on how popular the lanes are with solo drivers. The top rate will have to be high enough, he said, to prevent too many solo drivers from crowding the lanes.

TxDOT officials said peak pricing in Orange County, a suburban area near Los Angeles, runs as high as $9 each way.


The market rules

Commissioner Ned Holmes said Houston's use of so-called "congestion pricing" to regulate traffic is one of the best aspects of the plan. He said the strategy is a way to use market forces to help regulate traffic.

Not everyone is singing hallelujahs over what critics describe as "Lexus Lanes" for the wealthy, however.

The new lanes, often called High Occupancy Toll, or HOT, lanes, are in use or in the works in a handful of other communities across America, including Northern Virginia.

Arlington County, Va.'s, Chris Hamilton said he's not sold on them. HOV lanes there have worked, and he's worried that allowing solo drivers to use them for a fee will ruin them.

"I am not convinced there is excess capacities in the HOV lanes," said Mr. Hamilton, a frequent blogger about commuting who also works for the county encouraging commuters to car-pool and use transit.

"One person's excess capacity is another person's congestion.

"We're concerned that the new lanes will just lead to more congestion for the folks who are already van-pooling and using transit.

"We don't want those people to get mired into heavy traffic once these hot lanes start."

Officials from Harris County and TxDOT said they'll give the HOT lane idea a lot more study before approving it anywhere in Texas.
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State not sold on NTTA's bid for 121 toll road

Commissioners raise doubts about toll plan OK'd by regional panel
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER - The Dallas Morning News - Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Two of five Texas Transportation Commission members said Tuesday that they can't guarantee they will ratify Monday's decision by local leaders to recommend the North Texas Tollway Authority for the State Highway 121 toll project.

Commissioners Ted Houghton of El Paso and Hope Andrade of San Antonio said awarding the contract to NTTA could leave the state vulnerable.

Mr. Houghton said NTTA's proposal is subject to more unknowns than the bid from its rival Cintra, the Spanish construction firm.

"Cintra's offer was a firm bid, an iron-clad contract that we could have closed on yesterday and they would have handed us a check," he said. "NTTA's is not a firm bid; it's merely a proposal. And so now we will have to negotiate."
Commission members get the final say on who will build the coveted 26-mile toll road in Collin and Denton counties. But the Regional Transportation Council sent them a strong message Monday with its 27-10 vote in favor of giving the lucrative contract to the NTTA.

The commission's June 28 agenda will include an action item on the Highway 121 bid, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. But what that item will say – and whether it's a final decision or simply an agreement to negotiate with NTTA – is not clear.

Still, commissioners are eager to work with the RTC in North Texas, Ms. Andrade said. But she said she first must be convinced that the NTTA proposal is the best deal for Texas and doesn't expose the state to a lawsuit from Cintra.

"I want to first make sure that we don't place any risks on the state," Ms. Andrade said. "If there was any negative impact on the state, we would have to bring the region together to tell them we need to figure out how to do this."

Commissioners Ned Holmes of Houston and Fred Underwood of Lubbock could not be reached for comment Tuesday, and Chairman Ric Williamson of Weatherford declined to say what weight he will give the RTC's decision.

"Now that we have an action item before us, it's inappropriate for me to comment as it might be interpreted as how I intend to vote," he said.


Cintra's effect

Commission members and Transportation Department spokesman Randall Dillard said the regional vote will be given great weight in Austin. They argued that NTTA's win was a victory, not a setback, for Gov. Rick Perry's campaign to attract private companies willing to invest in building Texas roads.

"The world changed, and history was made," Mr. Dillard said. "And the RTC decision proves that competition has played, and can play, a vital role in the building of Texas roads."

Mr. Houghton was more explicit. The fact that NTTA was willing to propose paying billions of dollars upfront for the road is a direct result of Cintra's involvement in the bidding process, he said.

"Competition has worked," said Mr. Houghton, who has previously criticized the NTTA. "We've won. And all you have to do is look at history. Tell me, how else would we have been able to pull in $2.8 billion, or whatever the final amount will be, without bringing in the free market?"


NTTA proponent

Mr. Houghton and his fellow commissioners were appointed by Mr. Perry, a Republican. But the governor's eagerness to award Cintra the Highway 121 project met opposition from within his own party.

State Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, opposed awarding the contract to Cintra and helped smooth the way for NTTA's bid. Mr. Carona now says he agrees that Cintra's bid resulted in a better proposal from the NTTA.

"The governor and the ... [transportation commissioners] did the right thing by introducing the free market into the process," Mr. Carona said.

But he said Mr. Williamson promised him that the regional vote would be decisive on the Highway 121 project.

"The commissioners are honorable men and women," Mr. Carona said. "And the chairman of the commission told me, in no uncertain terms, during the last session that the wishes of the RTC will be honored. I believe he is a man of his word.
"Certainly, if the Transportation Commission chose to ignore the overwhelming wishes of RTC, then that would not bode well for future relations between the Legislature and the Texas Transportation Commission.

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