Metro’s ExpressLanes is gearing up for the fall debut of the HOT lanes on the 110 freeway between Adams Boulevard and the Artesia Transit Center. That will be followed next year by the arrival of HOT lanes on the 10 freeway between Alameda Street in downtown Los Angeles and the 605 freeway.
The project has made a series of videos explaining how the ExpressLanes will work. This one answers questions that many of you have had about enforcement — how the CHP will monitor who should and shouldn’t be paying a toll.
Here are the links to the first four videos:
ExpressLanes: It’s about time
ExpressLanes: how it works
ExpressLanes: explaining congestion pricing
ExpressLanes: rules of the road and enforcement
The project will allow single motorists to use the carpool lanes on the 110 and 10 in exchange for a toll that will rise and fall depending on how much room there is to sell in the lanes. There’s a ton of useful information on the project web page, including this FAQ, and the videos also do a good job explaining how the project will work.
Categories: Projects
@Annelise – my thoughts exactly. I’ve been driving in the 110 carpool lane for over 10 years and though I get that this project is designed to decrease congestion, I’m not happy that I have to pay to continue getting the benefit I was already getting.
Although, I think if you use the expresslane at least 4 times during the month, you don’t have to pay the monthly fee. At least, that’s how I read it. At the very least, you have to shell out $40 ($25 for the transponder, and then $15 credit for tolls) – it appears that you can get the remaining balance from the tolls credit back, and return the transponder for the $25 back, when/if you stop participating in the program.
The other thing is that though you can use an already exisiting Fastrak transponder (like the kind they use in the Bay Area?), you can only use it for solo driving (aka paying tolls). You can’t use it as a carpooler because it doesn’t have a manual switch to designate how many riders are in the car. That kind of bummed me out because up in the Bay Area a while ago, Costco was selling the Fastrak transponder and toll credit at a discount (something like paying $30 for $35 worth).
I hope that there is plenty of time for people to get the transponders before the expresslanes go into effect.
Wait, so if I want to use the lane as a carpooler only, like people have been doing for the past however many years, I still have to buy a transponder and pay a monthly fee?