Car pool lane tolls set to go on Valley Freeway

The state's first experiment tolling car pool lanes will begin Saturday, part of a traffic-management test that has drawn interest from more than 9,600 drivers and could be the next step in returning tolls to highways.

The new "high-occupancy toll" lanes on the Valley Freeway between Auburn and Renton will open at 10:30 a.m. in both directions. While single drivers must pay to use them, car pools -- vehicles with a driver and at least one passenger -- can use the lanes for free. Both, however, must only access the lanes at five points northbound and three southbound, not including the lanes' end points.

It will be a big adjustment for drivers accustomed to entering car pool lanes at will, but the goal is relieving congestion in other lanes, and many are eager to see how well it works.

"The first trip might be a learning experience for drivers," said Noel Brady, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation. "They have to experiment with where they get on and where they have to get over to get to an access zone."

Even for those accustomed to using the HOV lanes, "this will take some getting used to," he said.

New double markings outline the lanes, which are part of a four-year experiment to determine if enough solo drivers will pay to use the highway's underused HOV lanes, to ultimately ease freeway congestion.

Solo drivers' trips into the lanes will be tracked electronically by elevated scanners that, using a transponder inside the vehicle, assess a toll each time it uses the lane. Drivers will be billed through a debit account or can pay the assessments by credit card.

The transponders cost $30; tolls will be at least 50 cents and could increase to $9, though the state says they'll most likely top out at about $4. The tolls will rise as the lanes are used more heavily, and drop as traffic thins out to encourage more use. Tickets are $124 for drivers who don't enter at designated points or who drive solo in the lanes without a transponder.

As of Thursday, 9,643 new toll accounts were set up for drivers in the freeway corridor, which is "a little more than we would like, so we're slightly anxious to see exactly what the morning and evening peak hour demand will be," Brady said.

Although the state isn't expecting problems, officials have opted to open the lanes on a weekend when traffic is lighter "to be cautious," Brady said.

There have been plenty of questions from drivers in advance -- mostly dealing with restricted access points.

There are "some concerns from people who car pool, and fears that it'll be difficult for them to access the HOT lane if they have to wait for the access to those," Brady said. "For some people it's just going to take sitting down at the computer and studying the access zones and figuring out how to use them."

A big question is whether, as the state hopes, the system will lure enough paying single drivers to the car pool lanes to relieve traffic elsewhere.

Operating hours for the lanes, initially set for 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., may change. The state has predicted that speeds in the HOT lanes will surpass 45 mph 90 percent of the time, but officials worry about whether slower speeds could remove the incentive for solo drivers to use the HOT lanes.

"The trick here ... is going to be offering this choice for solo drivers without taking away the incentive to car pool," Brady said.

One driver, Greg McLean, worries about more weaving across the freeway as drivers pull out of HOT lanes and in front of other drivers to get to Interstate 405.

"I can't tell you how many times I have witnessed this personally and have escaped an accident," said McLean, of Covington.

The state has moved the end of the northbound HOT lanes back a quarter mile and provided 1,500 feet at each access point to allow time for merging, Brady said. Collisions declined in similar lanes in Minneapolis during the first two years of operation, he said, but "some drivers might need to experiment with this to determine when is the best time to exit the HOT lane."

Lanes of this kind are the exception. Besides Minneapolis, San Diego and Orange counties, Calif.; Houston; Denver; and Salt Lake City also have used the lanes.

James Ray, acting director of the Federal Highway Administration, said no HOT lanes have closed and all help increase travel speeds to some degree.

Nationwide, two new HOT lanes will be built in the next few years; two will be expanded; and one set of car pool lanes, on a different Minneapolis freeway, will be converted to HOT lanes, Ray said.

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