HOV toll lane project goes to bid

By Ariel Hart

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The state of Georgia hit the gas Thursday on its biggest transportation innovation in at least a decade, as the state Transportation Board told staff they could bid out a project to add electronic tolls to the I-85 HOV lane in Gwinnett County.

Whether it’s a good innovation remains to be seen, since it is officially classified as a test project. But its status as a transportation game-changer -- and a concrete assault on congestion -- is clear. It is planned as the seed of a whole network of metro Atlanta HOT lanes.

The idea is to offer something extraordinary at rush hour: one spot here where drivers who can afford it are nearly guaranteed mobility. The flip side is for two-person car pools, who currently make up most of the free HOV lane's traffic. Kicking them out will make space for the paying drivers.

The high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane, which will open to traffic in June 2011, will run from about Chamblee Tucker Road in DeKalb County, just south of I-285, to Old Peachtree Road in Gwinnett County.

"This is a chance to dip our big toe in the water, to try it out," Todd Long, the state Department of Transportation's director of planning, said after the meeting.

He and Gov. Sonny Perdue's transportation adviser, Jannine Miller, said that it would be a new world for people stuck in traffic trying to get to the airport, day care, a wedding, a funeral or other special event. "How many times have you been frustrated sitting there in traffic, and you can’t move because you don’t have that option?" Long said.

As congestion in the main lanes rises, the toll price will also rise, always keeping enough drivers out to keep the traffic in that lane flowing. The tolls will only be charged electronically, to drivers who have signed up for an account and a “Peach Pass” transponder.

Public transit, motorcycles, alternative fuel vehicles and car pools of three people or more ride free. Two-person car pools and solo drivers must pay. Well over 200,000 vehicles a day use that stretch of I-85.

HOT lane advocates emphasize that the lanes are used by people with a wide range of incomes. Data also show that wealthier people use them more: On the 91 Express lanes in Orange County, Calif., the average household income of drivers surveyed in 2009 was $101,700, a third higher than that county's average income.

The toll rate for I-85 has not been set yet, but under current estimates, it may cost 90 cents per mile at the most congested times, or about $13 to drive the length of the project. At that price, the worst-case scenario for commuting the entire lane twice every weekday at top congestion would ring up at about $6,500 a year.

State Road and Tollway Authority officials emphasize the average trip will be less than that, six or seven miles, and that the rate will vary.

There are kinks: A State Road and Tollway Authority official informed a DOT board meeting in March that the technology SRTA bought for the I-85 "Peach Pass" was not expected to work on Ga. 400's Cruise Card lanes in the beginning, and vice versa. Tamping public concern, SRTA and DOT are now working on options, and a spokeswoman for SRTA, Malika Wilkins, said Thursday that it was possible the technology for the two roads would work together from the outset. That may be moot, since the bonds that paid for Ga. 400 will be paid off July 1, 2011, and the tolls can come down as promised.

In addition, Georgia couldn't afford to widen the road enough to install barriers. So Georgia's HOT lane will not be separated from the regular lanes by anything but painted lines on the ground, like those on the HOV lanes. Those who violate the lanes will have their license plates automatically photographed and be mailed a bill for the toll plus a fine.

"I want to stress this," said Gerald Ross, DOT's chief engineer.  "It is a demonstration project ... I won’t stand here and tell you 100 percent it’s going to work, because we don’t know." The state intends to test it for at least five years.

The idea of the HOT lane is to provide a choice, not to make money. It may well not, as the state will have to pay staff to run it and do the toll billing.

Georgia officials have given up on ever having enough money to sufficiently expand metro Atlanta’s regular highway lanes.

A grant of $110 million from the Bush administration jump-started the project, but Georgia officials found out later that most of that will have to go toward buying commuter buses and building park-and-ride lots. In addition to the federal funds, the state is spending about $66 million on the project.

It’s not clear what the project will mean for the drivers in the other lanes. A few HOT lanes have been built elsewhere in the country, but speakers at a recent Atlanta conference said none of them was quite the same as Georgia’s, with enough years under the belt to draw conclusions.

One thing that concerned board member David Doss was the structure of the lanes. Since there will be only one lane, not two, an accident in the lane will block it off. It will not have its own entrance and exit ramps, so drivers trying to get in or out will have to make their way across all lanes of the highway from the general ramp.

Toll officials say they plan an aggressive campaign to educate drivers so they’ll know what’s legal and what’s not.

Key facts

• The HOV lane on a stretch of I-85, mostly in Gwinnett County, will turn into a toll lane, or HOT lane.

• High-occupancy toll lanes charge tolls electronically. Overhead sensors ping transponders that drivers place in their windshields.

• State officials estimate the toll fee may vary between 10 cents and 90 cents per mile, depending on traffic at the moment. The worse the congestion, the more expensive the toll lane.

• Car pools of three people or more, public transit vehicles, motorcycles, emergency vehicles and cars with alternative fuel license plates all ride free.