I-66 HO/T Lanes

[cpzilliacus]

WTOP Radio: VDOT recommends funding I-66 toll project

The plan to bring tolls and new HOV rules to Interstate 66 from Gainesville to the Capital Beltway is the top project in Virginia when it comes to cutting delay times and increasing access to jobs or transit, according to a new analysis released Tuesday by Virginia's secretary of transportation.

The analysis scored transportation plans to help determine which projects warrant limited state funds, part of a newly required process under Virginia law. The Commonwealth Transportation Board has the final say over which projects should receive funding.

All of the raw scores are relative to the other projects that need funding.

After hundreds of Virginia Department of Transportation staff and consultants spent months analyzing the projects, staff presented recommendations Tuesday for the projects that should be funded during the next six years.

In Northern Virginia, staff recommended funding for projects that will bring toll lanes to I-66 outside the Beltway, widen Route 28 in Fairfax County, widen Route 1 and Telegraph Road in Prince William County and add a second entrance to the Ballston Metro Station that would promote more development there.

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post: I-66 vote to put Virginia legislators on HOT seat with commuters

Even as some members of the Virginia General Assembly attempt to block the plan to create high-occupancy toll lanes on Interstate 66, the state is about to hold hearings on the inside the Capital Beltway design.

If you bought your way into today's high-occupancy vehicle lanes by purchasing a hybrid car with an exemption, you're probably pleased by that proposal, though it may have no effect in preserving the exemption.

Others worried about the future of commuting along these nine miles or so of interstate highway would be pretty much out of luck for the next decade or more.

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post opinion: Traffic hypocrisy in Richmond

FOR FOUR DAYS last fall, along one of the most heavily trafficked corridors in the mid-Atlantic, Virginia state police did something novel: They enforced the law.

They cracked down on Northern Virginia scofflaws driving at rush hour without passengers inside the Beltway on I-66, Northern Virginia's most critical east-west artery. Since the road opened more than 30 years ago, rush-hour drivers on that segment have been required to carry at least one passenger or be subject to ticket with fines up to $1,000.

The law is widely ignored; at least 20 percent to 30 percent of rush-hour drivers on I-66 are alone in their cars, choosing the (usually slight) risk of a ticket over the hassle of carpooling. After four days of enforcement, the tally was nearly 250 tickets. That sounds like a lot, but it could have been three or four or 10 times as many; police say it's dangerous to do more on a highway as clogged as I-66.

Those traffic-clogging scofflaws also happen to be voters, which is why politicians in Northern Virginia are afraid of them. So afraid that some state lawmakers would rather protect their "right"  to continue breaking the law rather than embrace a balanced, long-term financing plan to alleviate congestion along the corridor.

[jeffandnicole]

Do people that obey the HOV rules vote also?  I would think those people would be happy the police are cracking down.

[The Ghostbuster]

Back to the HOT Lanes on Interstate 66: IMHO, just build them, and let SOVs use the lanes 24/7 for a price. We can't always cater to the naysayers.

[1995hoo]

Dr. Gridlock has a blog posting noting the postponement of the public meetings for the inside-the-Beltway project. Of interest is the included map showing where the gantries will be. It also shows a "registration gantry" on the eastbound Dulles Access Road Extension, though it doesn't explain what that is and I haven't yet tried to find out whether there's an explanation anywhere online.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2016/01/25/vdot-postpones-2-hearings-on-i-66-hot-lanes/

[vdeane]

Presumably it's something to preserve the exemption for Dulles traffic, though I don't know how they plan to filter for just traffic from Dulles as the ramps for I-66, the toll road, and VA 123 all merge in before that point.

[oscar]

Presumably it's something to preserve the exemption for Dulles traffic, though I don't know how they plan to filter for just traffic from Dulles as the ramps for I-66, the toll road, and VA 123 all merge in before that point.

The Dulles airport access road merges with (eastbound)/splits from (westbound) non-Dulles traffic east of VA 123, at about the point where the registration gantry would be located. So that gantry could be set up to pick up only traffic to or from the airport.

Is it implicit in the "registration gantry" scheme that traffic to or from the airport would still need to have an E-ZPass to use I-66? (Strangely enough, I haven't been following the I-66 HO/T lanes plans or this thread, even the plans would directly affect my county.) That would be the easiest way to cancel out any toll assessment on I-66, though I could see license plate recognition used instead.

[1995hoo]

Presumably it's something to preserve the exemption for Dulles traffic, though I don't know how they plan to filter for just traffic from Dulles as the ramps for I-66, the toll road, and VA 123 all merge in before that point.

They've already said there will be no Dulles exemption.

[davewiecking]

It could be located to filter traffic from the airport differently from 495 & 123, but the plans I just found show the location, and it won't allow that. It could differentiate the traffic entering 66 at VA 7 from all that on the Access Road, but why? Not much of a difference in feet of asphalt used. I hope Dr. G. finds an answer to your question.

[1995hoo]

He didn't answer me in the comments there. Maybe I'll send him a tweet. He usually replies to those.

[mrsman]

I'm glad that there will not be a Dulles exemption from the I-66 HOT lanes proposal.  I beleive that HOV should be limited to those with multiple passengers - vehicles that actually improve traffic.  I'm glad that clean vehicle exemptions and other similar exemptions are also falling by the wayside here.  All of those people are still wlecome to use the road, just pay a toll.

And there are fewer and fewer Dulles people coming from DC and Arlington as flights expand in Reagan.  And the Dulles drivers still get a huge toll break by being allowed on the Dulles access road.

[1995hoo]

I wouldn't say the Access Road is a "break" on the tolls because it was there long before the Toll Road was built (and indeed a major reason it was built was because of the FAA's reluctance to allow non-airport traffic onto the Access Road, although for a year or two before the Toll Road opened people in Reston were able to get a "Commuter" decal that let them use the ramp at what was then Reston Avenue to commute on the Access Road).

[cpzilliacus]

I'm glad that there will not be a Dulles exemption from the I-66 HOT lanes proposal.  I beleive that HOV should be limited to those with multiple passengers - vehicles that actually improve traffic.  I'm glad that clean vehicle exemptions and other similar exemptions are also falling by the wayside here.  All of those people are still wlecome to use the road, just pay a toll.

And there are fewer and fewer Dulles people coming from DC and Arlington as flights expand in Reagan.  And the Dulles drivers still get a huge toll break by being allowed on the Dulles access road.

When I-66 from the Capital Beltway to the Rosslyn Tunnel was built and opened to traffic in 1982 (followed shortly after by the Dulles Connector Road), there was an understanding that I-66 was an eastern extension of the Dulles Access Road, hence the "Dulles" exemption.

I am in favor of the Dulles exemption, as long as it is handled through all electronic means, with gantries over the east end of the Dulles Access Road - for this reason - taxicabs. Non-airport cabs must deadhead back to "home" to get more business, and airport cabs seldom, if ever, get a fare to the airport.

Alternatively, deregulate taxicabs at Dulles and allow any cab to drop-off or pick up there, as is the case at DCA.

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post: McAuliffe announces deal on I-66 HOT lanes that would speed up highway widening

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) announced Wednesday morning that he has agreed to speed up the widening of Interstate 66 inside the Capital Beltway as a compromise with state legislators who were opposed to imposing tolls on those nine miles of highway before an expansion.

The deal is the latest significant compromise McAuliffe has reached with the Republican-controlled General Assembly, following an agreement on gun regulations announced in January, and it already is drawing strong reaction from supporters and opponents.

The I-66 deal shortcuts the McAuliffe administration's plan to create high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes in 2017, study their performance in managing traffic, then decide whether the interstate should be widened. The governor's original plan called for financing the any widening through the toll revenues. Under the deal announced Wednesday, the cost of the widening will be financed through the state budget. The widening will occur along four miles in the eastbound direction between the Dulles Connector and Ballston, the zone where traffic is heaviest. The budget revisions will allow for a cost up to about $140 million, state transportation officials said.

[AlexandriaVA]

So it begins, the first concession to residents of Fairfax and Loudoun County. Next thing we know, they'll put an HOV cap at 2 passengers (after sob-story testimony of husband-and-wife carpoolers) and a cap on tolls (after sob-story testimony of homeowners in $800K houses who "can't afford it").

Seen this movie before, unfortunately.

[cpzilliacus]

So it begins, the first concession to residents of Fairfax and Loudoun County. Next thing we know, they'll put an HOV cap at 2 passengers (after sob-story testimony of husband-and-wife carpoolers) and a cap on tolls (after sob-story testimony of homeowners in $800K houses who "can't afford it").

It used to be HOV-4 when I-66 opened in 1982, then reduced to HOV-3, and to HOV-2 (at the behest of then-Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Virginia 10)) in 1995 or 1996. 

Not everyone beyond the Capital Beltway lives in an $800,000 home, even in Northern Virginia. 

Seen this movie before, unfortunately.

Where have you seen that?  An attempt to change the HOV requirement on I-10 in Los Angeles County (El Monte Busway) from HOV-3 to HOV-2 was quickly raised back to HOV-3 [I believe it is now one of LACMTA's HOV/toll facilities] when it was evident that the restricted lanes performed badly at HOV-2.

IMO, HOV-3, combined with tolled passage for vehicles not meeting the HOV requirement, is the right way to go.   In the I-66 corridor, functioning HOV lanes might actually lead to some slugging, which is a low-cost way to encourage car-pooling, itself a pretty cheap way to efficiently use highway infrastructure.

[AlexandriaVA]

Seen this movie before, unfortunately.

Where have you seen that?
[/quote]

Remind me of all of the transit improvements that have come about from the 395, 95 and 495 HOT lane projects? I think there were a few subsidized routes that had a 1 or 2 year shelf life.

Plus, representatives from distant suburbs have been making noise about money from the tolls going to Arlington for bike lanes and transit. If the administration has already decided to fold on its plans, who is to say that future administrations won't cave in to do "commonsense" reallocation of toll monies?

[1995hoo]

The HOV-2 change was in the spring of 1995. I remember this because the summer of 1995 was the summer between my final year of college and my first year of law school and I worked downtown near my father's office, so we commuted together to take advantage of the HOV-2 rule.

Ms1995hoo and I live outside the Beltway and our house is nowhere near $800,000.



I posted the following comment on that Dr. Gridlock posting tonight, so I'll just copy and paste it here:

This makes a heck of a lot of sense to me. I use I-66 outbound from DC to the Beltway reasonably often in the afternoon rush hour (connecting to the Beltway HO/T lanes). I don't use it inbound all that often because it's too far out of the way and too slow, but when I do use it inbound, the backup always begins just east of Route 7, starts to loosen at Exit 69 in Falls Church, and fully opens up at Exit 71 for Fairfax Drive/Glebe Road. The same problem does NOT occur in the evening rush hour. The problem is obvious: Two lanes join I-66 from the Dulles Access Road Extension and everyone in them has to shove left by the time you reach Exit 69. A large percentage of the traffic exits at Exit 71 for the Ballston/Clarendon corridor. 

Simply imposing HO/T won't solve the problem because the problem already exists with an HOV system. In theory, HO/T sells the excess capacity. But anyone who drives inbound on that road knows there's no excess capacity. Traffic doesn't go much above 10 mph, if that fast. (I often find I'm using the clutch, rather than the accelerator, to move forward.) So you need to do something else to get the traffic to keep moving. Adding one lane to connect the chokepoint to the break-free point is a good move. 

Widening past Exit 71 isn't a good option because there's no space on the elevated segment near Spout Run and through the Rosslyn tunnel.

[AlexandriaVA]

I make no bones about the technical aspects. My fears are purely political. So far everything is still on paper, and when things are on paper, they can be modified. You can bet a Big Mac that this won't be the end of the eroding away of the deal. The constituency of the outer suburbs is really mostly interested in one thing, and that's highway lanes which are not tolled.

[1995hoo]

I really don't understand the fuss. The I-66 inside the Beltway proposal is unique among Virginia's HO/T lanes in that it's supposed to be peak-direction only during peak hours only (to paraphrase the usage from the New York Subway in referring to the diamond express trains, it's "to DC AM, from DC PM"). If you're using the road legally as an HOV, you get to continue to do so until they change it to HOV-3 (which they had already planned to do in 2020). If you're not using it now because you don't satisfy the HOV rule, you'll have a new option. The only people who lose are the people with vehicles eligible for the clean-fuel exemption since that exemption is to end when HO/T operations begin.

I understand the squawking about the outside-the-Beltway proposal more than I do the squawking about inside-the-Beltway.

[froggie]

The I-66 inside the Beltway proposal is unique among Virginia's HO/T lanes in that it's supposed to be peak-direction only during peak hours only

Which could also be termed "HOT creep".  The previous proposal was for tolling in both directions during peak hours, which makes sense from an operational perspective since the reverse commute can be just as bad as the "peak direction".  But too many people squawked so that plan was pulled.

Also regarding an earlier comment of yours, the previous proposal was also to implement tolling and HOV-3 at the same time.  That would have opened up capacity for solo drivers and those HOV-2 users willing to pay the toll.

[AlexandriaVA]

The I-66 inside the Beltway proposal is unique among Virginia's HO/T lanes in that it's supposed to be peak-direction only during peak hours only

Which could also be termed "HOT creep".  The previous proposal was for tolling in both directions during peak hours, which makes sense from an operational perspective since the reverse commute can be just as bad as the "peak direction".  But too many people squawked so that plan was pulled.

Also regarding an earlier comment of yours, the previous proposal was also to implement tolling and HOV-3 at the same time.  That would have opened up capacity for solo drivers and those HOV-2 users willing to pay the toll.

This is what I'm talking about...they've already backed off bi-directional peak-hour tolling. Now they're backing off the waiting period to add the third lane. What's the next hammer to drop?

[1995hoo]

The I-66 inside the Beltway proposal is unique among Virginia's HO/T lanes in that it's supposed to be peak-direction only during peak hours only

Which could also be termed "HOT creep".  The previous proposal was for tolling in both directions during peak hours, which makes sense from an operational perspective since the reverse commute can be just as bad as the "peak direction".  But too many people squawked so that plan was pulled.

....

I definitely agree it made sense in both directions, especially as Tysons becomes more and more of an "urban" area over time. The old idea of a "reverse commute" doesn't really apply in that corridor. Looking at eastbound I-66 in the evenings, the backup in the same spot I cited before is hideous. Hard for me to comment on westbound in the mornings. We were on there last week after dropping my wife's car at an auto body shop in Fairfax, but the sun glare was so bad I had trouble looking at anything other than where I was going. I know westbound is no picnic then, though.

But doing something is better than leaving it as it is now.

[cpzilliacus]

I make no bones about the technical aspects. My fears are purely political. So far everything is still on paper, and when things are on paper, they can be modified. You can bet a Big Mac that this won't be the end of the eroding away of the deal. The constituency of the outer suburbs is really mostly interested in one thing, and that's highway lanes which are not tolled.

If there is a legally-binding Record of Decision (note: not sure if one is required for this project), as there were with the Beltway HOV/Toll lanes, the Springfield Interchange, the Wilson Bridge and the ICC, then everyone has to follow that.