“Over the next decade, highway agencies in New York and New Jersey are poised to construct hundreds of miles of new High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes throughout the NYC metro region. All told, more than 400 miles of new highway lanes costing as much as $5 billion are being proposed as a solution to the NY metropolitan region's chronic congestion and air pollution.

But experience nationwide has repeatedly shown that more highway lanes attract more traffic and create more air pollution, accidents, noise and sprawl development. In this issue we unmask highway agencies' HOV rhetoric as a hoax. We show how HOV lanes intended for car-pooling actually do little more than encourage more single occupant vehicle use, and how DOTs use HOV lanes as a cloak to disguise their highway expansion plans. We also describe how motorist groups are able to loosen the minimum occupancy restrictions.”

— Transportation Alternatives' Auto-Free Press May/June 1993

In a move that should hasten the demise of HOV lanes nationwide, New Jersey Governor Whitman made the front pages in late October by lifting all restrictions on two major HOV lanes in her state. Whitman also refused to pay back the $247 million in U.S. funds used to build the lanes, a move NJ lawmakers legalized with language slipped into broader legislation. Whitman rightly pointed out that the HOV lanes did not work and showed no signs of encouraging car-pooling or reducing traffic. In fact, because of suburban sprawl and widely separated residential and employment centers, car-pooling can work only in rare instances.

Transportation Alternatives and our colleagues at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign strongly oppose the widening of highways to add HOV lanes. Instead, existing general-purpose lanes can be converted into real HOV lanes for vehicles with three or more passengers (not the current standard of two), which will help speed buses and commuter vans. Better yet, existing HOV lanes, like the ones targeted by Whitman on I-80 and I-287 in New Jersey, should be converted to toll lanes whose price changes to reflect increased demand during rush hour. These “High Occupancy Toll” or HOT lanes are taking the place of HOV lanes in many cities around the country. They are already a proven success, as are other toll roads that use “congestion” or variable pricing schemes that give motorists the choice of paying or waiting in traffic.

Ironically, the silver lining of Whitman's obliteration of the HOV lanes is that it reveals them to be little more than an “environmental” excuse to widen highways — something that is sure to be brought up by transportation reformers fighting the expansion of the Long Island Expressway and other area highways.

Read the latest news on this issue.

© 1997-2009 Transportation Alternatives
127 West 26th Street, Suite 1002
New York, NY 10001