Maybe you'll be driving a hot new car in a few years and maybe you won't. But you still might be able to drive in a HOT lane.
Rep. Marda Dillree, R-Farmington, wants the Utah Department of Transportation to see if Utah road construction projects could be partially funded by charging some drivers a toll to use high-occupancy vehicle lanes.Dillree is particularly interested in using the so-called HOT lanes (high occupancy/toll) to pay for road projects outside of Salt Lake County, like the Legacy Highway proposed for Davis County. Some state planners and government officials, including Gov. Mike Leavitt, believe the Legacy Highway is an excellent candidate to become one of Utah's first toll roads.
Utah doesn't even have high-occupancy vehicle lanes yet. It will have one HOV lane in each direction on I-15 when the $1.59 billion overhaul of Salt Lake County's northsouth freeway is completed in four years.
Dillree, co-chair of the Legislature's interim committee on transportation, proposed the idea at two recent public meetings and has discussed it with UDOT executive director Tom Warne.
"It's one of those things we need to take a serious look at," said Clint Topham, UDOT's deputy director. "It would be something new to (Utahns) so it might take a little time to get used to."
Dillree would rather not see the Legacy Highway become a toll road. Instead, she wants to charge motorists driving alone a small fee for the privilege of driving in a less congested carpool lane, if they so choose, on other highways. That money, Dillree proposes, could help pay for the Legacy Highway and make charging a toll on that route unnecessary.
HOT lanes are now in use on State Road 91 in Orange County, Calif., and on I-15 in nearby San Diego County.
The so-called 91 Express Lanes were built in the median of an existing freeway. The four restricted lanes can be used for free by vehicles with three or more occupants, but one- and two-person vehicles also can use the less-congested lanes for a fee.
UDOT officials say it's too late to incorporate HOT lanes into the Salt Lake County I-15 reconstruction project without increasing costs. After raising the state's per-gallon gasoline tax and vehicle registration fees to pay for the I-15 work, and then finding out later they need to raise another $350 million, that's not something legislators want to hear.
Dillree wants to know if HOT lanes can be incorporated into the future widening of I-15 in Davis County. She also wonders if an existing lane on I-215 could be converted into a carpool/toll lane.
"We're going through the environmental process on I-15 and we will look at that concept," said Byron Parker, UDOT project director for the Legacy Highway and Davis County I-15 studies. "We're looking at HOV lanes to see if they would operate well. Once you get the HOV lanes in, then at that point you can look to see if you want to use them as HOT lanes."
The revenue, Dillree suggests, could be used for any statewide road project, particularly in rural Utah where some residents may feel they aren't getting their money's worth from state gas tax funds.
Parker said HOT lanes are generally used as a traffic management tool - a way to balance out the traffic flow in traditionally underused carpool lanes. They normally would not be used solely as a way to make money, he said.