Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 23, 1990 TAG: 9004230335
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A5 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ARLINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"Only in the last five years, as congestion has returned to metropolitan areas, have we realized we're out of highway capacity," said Ronald F. Kirby, transportation director for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. "So people are looking for ways to accommodate travel demand without building new highways."
Virginia is extending the Shirley Highway's permanent, reversible high-occupancy-vehicle lanes 19 miles between the intersection of the Capital Beltway and Interstates 95 and 395 in Springfield and the Fairfax-Prince William County line, and is building 22 miles of restricted lanes on three highways in the Tidewater area.
Special lanes are also planned for Interstate 66 between the Capital Beltway and Manassas, although no date has been set.
Maryland, which has historically opposed HOV lanes, is studying them for Interstate 270 and Route 29.
Nationally, there are 40 operating HOV projects in 20 cities, according to the Texas Transportation Institute, and the number of lane miles of rush-hour carpool lanes is expected to reach 800 by 1995, up from 350 miles this year. Ten years ago, fewer than 100 lane miles were restricted to high occupancy vehicles.
Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner backed the trend in his recent national transportation policy, urging recipients of federal highway money to consider exclusive bus- and carpool lanes when they plan road projects.
"The focus . . . should be moving people and goods, not simply accommodating vehicles," the policy said, noting that an HOV lane on the Shirley Highway carries about 7,000 people an hour in rush hour, compared with 2,000 people an hour in a conventional lane.
"Money will make HOVs happen. It's the policy option whose time has come," said Fred G. Currey, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Greyhound Lines Inc., who is heading a business coalition that is urging that federal highway aid be tilted in favor of such projects. Greyhound contracts with some local and state governments to carry passengers on HOV lanes.
Nonetheless, several of America's largest urban areas, including Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia, do not have restricted lanes.
Many transportation professionals still consider HOV a gamble, citing difficulties in projecting use and other problems.
Figuring out the demand for HOV lanes is elusive because it is hard to predict how many people will be willing to give up their driver-only car for a van pool or bus.
That is especially true in suburban areas, where most job growth - and congestion - is occurring across the country.
Planners still haven't been able to come up with an HOV formula for suburban traffic patterns, where people travel from suburb to suburb instead of laterally into the central city.
And many companies offer free or heavily subsidized, tax-free parking to employees, which encourages people to drive to work alone.
That is a sore spot with many transportation officials who want to see parking taxed as income to provide a disincentive to driving.
"The key to this whole problem is parking," said Robert S. McGarry, transportation director in Montgomery County, Md.
But Alan Pisarski of Falls Church, a transportation consultant, said a suburban transit system will have to be invented.
"I think that HOV will be a strong part of that solution," he added.
by CNB