Metro Atlanta cars with one or two people could be paying tolls to drive the area's HOV lanes in as little as two years, state officials said.

The state Transportation Board on Thursday passed a resolution to push the plan forward. While the measure does not give final approval to convert metro Atlanta's 45 miles of Interstate HOV lanes into a comprehensive system of "high occupancy toll" lanes, that is the direction the state is headed, board leaders said.

"The feeling I get from the board and certainly my personal feeling is that's where we're at," Chairman Mike Evans said.

The point is less about raising money than about creating at least one lane where drivers can find flowing traffic if they're willing to pay, Evans said, "giving our customers the confidence we can get them from point A to point B."

The state Department of Transportation has been working for years on high occupancy toll, or HOT, lanes that allow single drivers to use the HOV lane if they pay a toll. But DOT board members have voiced reservations about piecemeal proposals, such as adding HOT lanes to Ga. 400 or I-20.

Instead, the resolution passed by unanimous voice vote Thursday moves toward a network. The board told its staff to recommend the best way to install and run a system of lanes that manage traffic flow by raising and lowering the toll price with congestion.

That plan could include tolling existing HOV lanes or building new ones. Most immediately, the resolution is to "give us the authority to look into, to investigate what it would take to convert the HOV lanes to HOT lanes," chief engineer Gerald Ross said in a presentation.

That converted lane system would be government-funded and managed, DOT spokeswoman Ericka Davis said.

Credits for not driving?

The state has applied again for federal funds to put tolls on I-85's HOV lane in Gwinnett County, an innovative proposal that would encourage "green" commutes by giving teleworkers and transit riders small credits toward tolls. Georgia first applied for funding for that project last year. It made the short list but lost in the end. Some said one reason was the proposal wasn't a comprehensive solution.

And the state has filed an "expression of interest" with the federal government for help tolling all Atlanta's interstate HOV lanes.

Staffs at the DOT and the State Road and Tollway Authority are studying issues such as how to price the toll. One of the first HOT lanes, in California, charges about $1 a mile during the most congested time of day.

Other issues include placement of exits and entrances, how to separate the lanes and how many passengers qualify as a car pool in order to ignore the toll.

Defining a car pool

Cars with only two occupants would almost certainly have to pay the toll, and maybe three-person cars, too. Stretches of the HOV system already are so congested that if two-person cars stay in for free there wouldn't be any room for the toll-paying solo drivers.

Installing electronic toll sensors on existing HOV lanes is by far faster and cheaper than building new lanes. Staff from DOT and the tollway authority told the board that while they expect the study to take two to four years, they are optimistic it could fall on the low end of that scale.

New DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham is working on a comprehensive transportation plan, and she said converting HOV lanes is only a piece of the toll network that could emerge from the agency's studies.

Private investment will almost certainly play a role. The proposals to build HOT lanes alongside Ga. 400 and I-20 envisioned private investment to be repaid by tolls. It's likely DOT will keep moving toward building new lanes with private funds, but the agency is re-evaluating whether to keep those specific proposals or go about it differently.