This is great but they should have done it a long time ago.

The "forbidden" carpool lanes were badly underused, and responsible for many accidents, especially with the ridiculous experiment of having TWO carpool lanes near San Antonio.

Basically the logical thing to do for anyone was to "cheat" and drive solo in the carpool lane, given the weak enforcement of this concept and the fact that police should have better things to do

When two lanes are flying and the other 3 are at a congested standstill, that's an accident waiting to happen.

"The project will convert existing carpool lanes to double as express lanes, which solo drivers can pay to use..."

In other words, toll roads built using taxpayer money. Paid for by everybody but reserved for the benefit of the affluent.

@Curmudgeon: typically, the affluent person paid more tax dollars towards building that road as well.

I'm not at all claiming that entitles them to priority use of the road; roads are a public good. But your comment implies "everyone paid for the road equally", which is not the case.

The other question is: where will the tolls collected go? Will they help further improve our highways? If thats the case, maybe those who do pay tolls do deserve priority use of the roads that they contributed a larger share of funding to build? Philosophically I think this is pretty similar to the taxation issue I spoke of above, but it seems that in this country we've largely decided priority toll lanes are acceptable while priority use from paying higher taxes is not.

I'd prefer we just used those lanes for a high capacity train or subway, which is both a far more efficient use of the space and for its users would be far more affordable than owning a car.

If I use the carpool lane today with my passengers, will I still be able to use them in the future without paying? Will I have to do anything other than get in the lane to use it? Will it get me to SFO or SJC any quicker than I can now? It is very unsettling to be taking people to airports for early evening flights and have to leave by lunchtime to make sure we don't miss the plane.

Let me get this straight.

Government installs carpool lanes specifically to incentivize and reward conscientious drivers for carpooling. Later, government decides they will now charge *anyone* for that benefit, thereby resulting in 1) more congestion in those lanes, 2) no incentive to actually carpool, and 3) a few more toll dollars.

Pretty cynical, to say the least.

Will the tolls be enough to pay for the $33 million cost of this project, or is this just another taxpayer subsidy to the auto industry?

"incentivize and reward conscientious people for carpooling"

This is the biggest joke I've ever heard. There is nothing conscientious about carpooling and it's sad you actually believe this. HOV lanes have always been a flat-on-its-face irrational, failed and dangerous experiment.
We need the far left lane for passing! This solution is ideal for relieving congestion even if you think it's "immoral". Congestion is the bigger problem. For once, I agree with the VTA. They should done this while I was still living there though.

the money comes from gas taxes, vechicle registrations, and the "extra" gas tax and vehicle registration tax that was passed in 2017.

The extra lane/lanes should have been dedicated to create a mass transit line, and the High Speed Rail funds used. that would do more to relieve congestion.

But instead, all those extra taxes, making California gasoline prices the most expensive in the nation, will be used to privatize a highway lane, so that the Google/Facebook/Microsoft tech folks can have faster commutes.

Remember this, when voting in November on the repeal of the "extras gas tax/vehicle registration tax".

Ahhh, the old make-the-service-so-bad-the-customer-will-pay-you-extra-just-to-get out-of-it business model historically perfected by the airlines and socialism.

Airlines - reduce seat space so passengers who can't take it must upgrade to coach plus

VTA - reduce original number of general purpose lanes until they gridlock and then up-sell express lanes

Public schools - reduce individual achievement with Liberal Progressive propaganda until many leave for private schools and still have to pay parcel taxes

Socialized medicine - force people to pay for universal healthcare so bad they will never use it and then must buy market based supplemental insurance to get real medical care.

See the pattern here? Remember, for governments it is much easier to reduce services than to improve them.

[Portion removed.] You want to sit in traffic and unwind from your family? Sit in traffic and enjoy the quiet time!! Some of us are eager to spend as much time as possible with our children in the morning before school and in the evening before bedtime that we are willing to pay a little extra to make it happen. [Portion removed.] My wife and I are homeowners in EPA with two infant children making it happen with a single income under 100k. And no, my wife does not have a cash-based housekeeping job on the side!

Isn’t this just a clever way to steal a public (federal) road, and give it to the VTA as a permanent revenue stream?

Seems like a jacked-up way to fund the light rail.

Why didn’t they put this out to bid?

I’d buy it, build the infrastructure and get it done for half the cost in half the time. It’d be hugely profitable.

Why give our public highway to a corrupt local government agency?

We don't actually know what the congestion is like on a highway free of construction projects. The construction compounds the congestion. This new project will add another two years to construction congestion.

I dunno how this would help. Honestly, if you want to fix congestion on the highway, hire an army of cops and spend an entire year giving out $200 tickets for failure to know how to drive. People driving 4 abreast at 55 miles an hour, rubbernecking wildly at road work, trying to drive into my trunk, stamping on the brakes for no reason every 20 seconds... to name a few. The system works great when everyone behaves predictably.

I still believe that getting more commuters into buses on the freeways is the way to go. An efficient luxury bus along the lines of the Google buses stopping at various off ramp parking lots, being met by shuttles, would do a lot to take more people driving solo off the freeways. We also need to get efficient and affordable buses along the SFO/SJC corridor to get people to airports. Whenever I take someone to an airport rather than a bus station it is putting 2 trips on 101 and takes a couple of hours of my time. Dropping someone at an off ramp bus station, or picking them up there, would be so much more efficient and reduce airport drop off/pick up traffic too.

@Resident - what you propose sounds an awful lot like what Caltrain already does.

More info here:
Web Link
It says that the express lanes would still be free to carpoolers. It also says the carpool lanes don't attract enough traffic. Hmmm, so why are there two carpool lanes in some areas? Why not start by getting rid of one of them?

Old Palo Alto resident, have you been on Caltrain recently at commute time? And it will only get worse. There are many businesses now that are east of 101 and 280 is just as busy.

BTW, have you tried getting to SFO on Caltrain, particularly with luggage for an international trip?

Posted by Resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, 10 minutes ago

>> Old Palo Alto resident, have you been on Caltrain recently at commute time? And it will only get worse.

Caltrain is busy-- that is good, isn't it? You would prefer another whole freeway dumping cars off?

>> There are many businesses now that are east of 101 and 280 is just as busy.

The developers should have thought of that before they spread out. Or, they did, but, figured we all would pay for the new infrastructure required. And we did, and do, through added sales tax among other things.

>> BTW, have you tried getting to SFO on Caltrain, particularly with luggage for an international trip?

Worked fine the last time I did it, but, it has been awhile. Has there been a recent change/screw-up?

“I'd prefer we just used those lanes for a high capacity train or subway”

But trains are Victorian.
Old tech.
We must prioritize the POV.

When the laid the Caltrain tracks in 1863 with grade crossing of roads at 100s of junctions, they forgot the time bomb they have laid. Whoever laid Caltrain tracks should have eliminated all the at grade crossing one by one with discipline every year. Now after 150+ years, many rail crossing are costing upto 300 million to billion dollars each with cities having not enough resources to fund these projects.

As a result Caltrain cannot increase frequency or else, it could have reduced traffic from the road.

In so called third world countries, in busy cities, local trains run every 1 minute carrying tens of thousands of passengers from one end to the other end on 4 tracks - 2 on either side. and here we are in the # 1 economy, in # 1 state, in # 1 city and rudimentary railway service.

~100 billion dollar problem now.