Northern Virginia HOT Lanes

[1995hoo]

Is there any web-site or APP where one can monitor how the toll rates change during this afternoon?

Go to http://www.expresslanes.com. It's on there somewhere. It won't tell you precise tolls–instead it shows what the signs say. Hence why I don't plan to bother, plus it's just too nice a day to do that. I finished work at 11:00 and just walked from Vermont and L to the Kennedy Center. Glorious day for it, not a single cloud in the sky and it feels more like early April than Memorial Day Weekend.

[Alex]

Is there any web-site or APP where one can monitor how the toll rates change during this afternoon?

Go to http://www.expresslanes.com. It's on there somewhere. It won't tell you precise tolls–instead it shows what the signs say. Hence why I don't plan to bother, plus it's just too nice a day to do that. I finished work at 11:00 and just walked from Vermont and L to the Kennedy Center. Glorious day for it, not a single cloud in the sky and it feels more like early April than Memorial Day Weekend.

I clicked on one of the southbound VMS graphics and it listed 95-610 as $9.10. 30 seconds later, I clicked one further south and it displayed $13.20. The original one I clicked went up to match the $13.20 as well. When I click on the graphic north of the Occoquan River, it lists 95-Dale as $3.10. So what is the rate you pay for taking the entire length? I assume you pay one price for the northern segment and another for the southern segment even if you never leave the Express lanes. So would it be $16.30 in total?

Nevermind, I answered my question by plugging in I-95 near Franconia as the entry point and I-95 near Garrisonville Road as the exit point. I can think of many other things I'd rather spend $20 on...

Your estimated trip price and duration is:
95 Express Lanes $20.15 23min
Please Note: This price and duration are subject to change within the next five minutes and may not be what you see on the road

Screenshot of the traffic cam at the south end.

[jeffandnicole]

Based on that picture, they are getting plenty of time to use the HOT lanes.  Wonder if it was worth the price of admission...

[Zeffy]

Based on that picture, they are getting plenty of time to use the HOT lanes.  Wonder if it was worth the price of admission...

$20 just to get screwed by the 6 lanes to 3 lanes merge? Nah, only the New Jersey Turnpike can handle situations like that (and be cheaper!).

[froggie]

It's really a 5-lanes-to-3, as the mainline drops to 3 lanes at VA 123 and the HO/T lanes drop their 3rd lane at the following exit (VA 294).

[NJRoadfan]

$20 just to get screwed by the 6 lanes to 3 lanes merge? Nah, only the New Jersey Turnpike can handle situations like that (and be cheaper!).

Plus you get to fight exiting traffic at Garrisonville Rd./610. Are there any plans in the works to construct a small slip ramp from the express lanes to the left lane of I-95 there? Also, no matter what the price is for the southern segment, HOV/Flex users are likely going to drive the lanes to the end anyway since its no extra cost to them (demand destruction need not apply to that portion of traffic).

[Mapmikey]

Per http://www.expresslanes.com it is now $18.10 for the southern segment.

The camera at Triangle shows it still wide open.  From experience I know that if the VMS in the toll lanes right before the flyover for SR 619 says the delay begins in 4 miles (about half the remaining distance of the toll lanes), it is still faster to use them.  you start then running into the idea of balancing slightly faster versus the cost to do so.  But the toll does not always indicate how long the queue is.  If the queue reaches back to the SR 619 flyover (toll was ~$12 IIRC) it was way faster to get back into the mainline at SR 619.

Last two days the toll lane VMS has been warning of heavy traffic from Quantico to Garrisonville from Thur-Sat.

The photo of the south end earlier this afternoon does not really show if the queue is abnormal or not.  It was further than the picture shows yesterday and I saved 1/2 hour just between Woodbridge and Garrisonville by staying in the toll lanes.  I have seen tolls well under $10 but the queue was 2 miles.

VDOT is interested in adding a 4th mainline lane (in design and subject to the new House Bill 2 prioritization study) from Garrisonville to Centreport Pkwy.  It would make sense to have the toll lanes become the left through lane when they build it.

The weave with the current configuration is slower than it was when it first opened.  95 backs up from VA 3 and US 17 Falmouth for a lot of the highway north from Garrisonville.

Mike

[1995hoo]

I just got home from a run to the stores. About 20 minutes ago it was $3.05 from Turkeycock to "Backlick" (the end of the first segment). I paid it anyway to get from Landmark to the Franconia-Springfield Parkway, as I already knew Van Dorn was a mess (box-blockers galore at the Beltway) and the main line was crawling. The sign listed $5.10 from there to 95-DALE. I assume the southern segment was probably higher than the $18.10 Mapmikey cites, as his post was over an hour ago.

At about 12:15 on the way home from work, we paid $1.25 from Turkeycock to Route 644. The sign was listing around $4.00 for the next segment to 95-DALE. Traffic on the whole wasn't too bad yet at that point except near the Watergate in DC (understandable due to the lane closures associated with the car park collapse).



(Edited to fix a typo)

[cpzilliacus]

Letter to the Editor in the Washington Post: HOT lanes are causing, not easing, traffic headaches

I am glad the administration of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) has refocused the state Department of Transportation on good business practices that provide taxpayer value and away from the ideologically driven policies of the past, which have led to public-private partnerships for high-occupancy toll, or HOT, lanes. ["Va. control of I-66 project could net millions,"  Metro, May 19].

Traffic has gotten worse on Interstate 95's non-HOT lanes outside of rush hour . Drivers with only one passenger or no passengers have lost the privilege of using two highway lanes unless they are willing – and able – to pay. Also, with the HOT lane exits configured to assist certain travel patterns, rush-hour congestion seems to last longer and traffic worsens on secondary roads in the afternoons and late mornings. I shudder to think of the effect that weekend beach traffic will have on the region.

[1995hoo]

Seen on Twitter about 15 minutes ago. Inner Loop in Springfield. Apparently there were nails or screws or something spilled in the "free" lanes that caused a mega-problem

[cpzilliacus]

Seen on Twitter about 15 minutes ago. Inner Loop in Springfield. Apparently there were nails or screws or something spilled in the "free" lanes that caused a mega-problem

That is impressively high!  I just wonder if the bottleneck north of Va. 267 (Dulles Toll Road) was as bad as it normally is?

[02 Park Ave]

The toll last night to travel the full length of the HOT lanes on the I-95 was over $17.  is that a record?  Is there actually a maximum amount that can be achieved or is it open-ended?

[1995hoo]

There is no maximum on either I-95 or I-495.

As is noted elsewhere in this thread, last Friday (the day before Memorial Day weekend), the toll for just the southern segment on I-95 (from near Wegmans down to Aquia) was $18.10. That's for about nine or ten miles. The tolls for the northern two segments at the same time were around $3.05 for the first part (Turkeycock to Springfield) and around $5.10 for the second part (Springfield to "95-DALE"). So the total was around $26.25 to drive the full length at that particular time.

The $17 toll shown above on I-495 is the highest I know of so far on that road. I didn't see it personally. I was on the subway when that happened. But I had heard on the radio that there were mega-problems, so a high toll was not a surprise.

[02 Park Ave]

How are these tolls determined?

[1995hoo]

I wonder, would the problem at the southern end be alleviated–I deliberately chose not to say "solved"–if there were a single-lane extension that merged into the mainline on the left beyond Exit 143? That way traffic bound for that exit (which has a thriving slug lot) could use the existing flyover, but thru traffic could bypass it and avoid the weave area caused by the flyover's proximity to the interchange.

I know left-side merges are bad and the old one at Dumfries was a problem. In this case, there would at least be two options for how to rejoin the main line.

Just a thought I had. I haven't been through there southbound in several months and I intend to avoid southbound travel beyond Woodbridge this weekend!

Take a page from the NJ Turnpike manual as to how to merge 6 lanes down to 3 lanes. 

The biggest issue will be, unlike the Turnpike's dual-dual section, the HOT lanes aren't in use at all times, so there will be plenty of time where the general use lanes will be impacted from the HOT lanes merging in.

I'm not sure why I overlooked this post before. I think part of the reason for not doing the Turnpike-style merge is a desire to avoid a left-side merge (which caused bottlenecks at the lanes' prior southern terminus) and to provide an easy mechanism for HO/T users who want to use Exit 143 to reach the exit ramps without having to cut across all the general-purpose lanes after using a left-side merge. The latter is probably the more important consideration of the two, but unfortunately, the result is that HO/T users who wish to remain on I-95 have to shove left just as general-purpose traffic seeking to exit has to shove right.

One thing VDOT is unlikely ever to do, based on my observations from living in Virginia since 1974, is to set up a "Center Lanes Merge" situation. It's not the sort of thing I've ever seen anywhere in Virginia except perhaps on a temporary basis during construction. It's always either the far right lane or the far left lane that ends.

The most sensible short-term solution would appear to be to construct a single-lane connection that joins I-95 from the left a bit south of the Exit 143 ramps. Perhaps this could be done by widening the left shoulder and erecting a hard barrier to prevent HO/T traffic using this connection from trying to cut to the right to access Exit 143. Of course, to the extent this eliminates a left shoulder for the general-purpose lanes it introduces other problems....

[cpzilliacus]

How are theses tolls determined?

Proprietary, secret algorithm developed by the owner of the concession, Transurban.

[02 Park Ave]

I thought that it would be a function of congestion on the GP lanes and percentage of HOVs on the HOT lanes.

Has the Commonwealth approved this algorithm?

Is there also some sort of "guarantee" of an average speed of 45 mph on the HOT lanes?

[cpzilliacus]

I thought that it would be a function of congestion on the GP lanes and percentage of HOVs on the HOT lanes.

That is now some of them work (notably the HOV/Toll lanes on I-15 (Escondido Freeway) in San Diego County, California).

Has the Commonwealth approved this algorithm?

I do not believe they have any authority over that.  The big things that Transurban is mandated contractually to do are:

• Maintain free-flow speeds in the lanes covered under the concession agreement;
• Allow free passage to transit buses; and
• Allow free passage to HOV-3 cars, light trucks and vans (including van-pool vans).

Is there also some sort of "guarantee" of an average speed of 45 mph on the HOT lanes?

Not sure if it is 45, but it has to be free-flow. 

[mrsman]

I do not believe they have any authority over that.  The big things that Transurban is mandated contractually to do are:

• Maintain free-flow speeds in the lanes covered under the concession agreement;
• Allow free passage to transit buses; and
• Allow free passage to HOV-3 cars, light trucks and vans (including van-pool vans).

Isn't there also some payment that the state has to make to Transurban if there are too many HOVs using the HOT lanes?

[cpzilliacus]

I do not believe they have any authority over that.  The big things that Transurban is mandated contractually to do are:

• Maintain free-flow speeds in the lanes covered under the concession agreement;
• Allow free passage to transit buses; and
• Allow free passage to HOV-3 cars, light trucks and vans (including van-pool vans).

Isn't there also some payment that the state has to make to Transurban if there are too many HOVs using the HOT lanes?

I believe there is for I-495, but not sure about I-95.

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post: Transurban extending express lanes toll forgiveness plan

Transurban, the company that operates the 95 Express Lanes and the 495 Express Lanes in Northern Virginia, plans to make its "First Time Forgiveness"  program retroactive for drivers who mistakenly failed to pay a toll.

The current program, launched in October, had helped more than 2,700 express lanes users by the end of April, Transurban spokesman Michael McGurk said. "Making First Time Forgiveness retroactive was the logical next step,"  Nic Barr, Transurban's vice president of operations, said in a statement.

Several hundred more customers have the potential to benefit from that, McGurk said.

[NJRoadfan]

Coming down on Saturday, I saw a truck that clearly didn't belong on the lanes. Whoever driving it seemed to be clueless too. At one point they went to take one of the exits back to the mainline and at the last minute swerved back into the express lanes! Pricing was at the "base" toll, those lanes were a ghost town on a Saturday morning.

[1995hoo]

It's not unusual to see trucks using them. On I-95 trucks used to be allowed prior to the HO/T changeover (except south of Potomac Mills Mall due to the weigh station out on the mainline), so some drivers may just mess up. On the Beltway, it's less understandable. I've seen a number of trucks in the Beltway lanes stopped by police.

[cpzilliacus]

It's not unusual to see trucks using them. On I-95 trucks used to be allowed prior to the HO/T changeover (except south of Potomac Mills Mall due to the weigh station out on the mainline), so some drivers may just mess up. On the Beltway, it's less understandable. I've seen a number of trucks in the Beltway lanes stopped by police.

If the VSP observe a truck with an apparent gross vehicle weight over 10,000 pounds, then will stop it and give the driver a ticket.

I thought such trucks were no now banned from the HOV/Toll section of I-95 as well?

[Mapmikey]

Trucks over 2 axles are banned on all the NoVa HO/T lanes.

As 1995hoo noted, semis could use I-95 HOV lanes from Dale City northward during non-HOV hours up until they were converted to HO/T 24-7 on Dec 29, 2014.

Mike