While on my travels in the United States, I rediscovered the value of HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) Lanes, where people car-pooling car drive with less traffic congestion. I think that such lanes would be a valuable addition to cities in Canada that do not have them, such as Calgary or Edmonton. This would create an incentive to carpool, and could help reduce traffic.
I also rediscovered the value of toll highways that run parallel to public freeways, or toll lanes that allow more free movement of traffic. The CA-91 freeway east of Los Angeles is a good example of these toll lanes. The only toll freeway in Canada to my knowledge is the 407 in Toronto, but I think it would be valuable for other large cities to pursue this idea. People will happily pay tolls for faster commutes. 5 dollars to cut 20-30 minutes off of a commute is worth it if you are paid more than $20/hr and it buys you more family time.
4 comments
Alasdair says:
20 August 2008 at 10:59 (UTC -7 )
Personally i’d rather privatize all freeways and have them all tolled on supply and demand to make sure the speed never drops below 80 km/h.
Tolls are also an incentive to carpool because if you have 3 people in a car you are paying 1/3rd the toll per person.
Reid says:
20 August 2008 at 11:02 (UTC -7 )
Calgary will never have HOV lanes. The planners here are too stupid. Everything they do is 25 years behind the times. They still think the solution to crowded LRT trains is to keep the system on grade and make it a longer straight line thus filling up the trains further away from the city core.
Taliesyn says:
20 August 2008 at 12:40 (UTC -7 )
Reid – it’s not that they are stupid – it’s political. The purpose of extending LRT lines is that it buys votes in outlying neighbourhoods. The right answer would be to make the trains more frequent by improving the automation of train control. Also, they should build more legs to the west, southeast and north. I still think the stupidest thing they’ve done is make the NE line NOT go to the airport.
Powell Lucas says:
20 August 2008 at 14:01 (UTC -7 )
This is a good idea that has been around for a long time. Unfortunately it will take Edmonton and Calgary ten years of road building just to unsnarl the traffic before they can even consider such an idea.
Albertans would probably ignore it anyway. Just come out here after the first snowfall of the season. Slow down on the icy roads? Not on your life! It’s like watching a demolition derby.