Ford government says allowing single drivers in high-occupancy vehicle lanes will help fight gridlock
Highway lanes designated for carpoolers will soon be opened up to solo drivers at certain times of the day, Ontario’s transportation minister said Tuesday.
The Ford government’s latest attempt to reduce gridlock — which has included an ongoing effort to remove bike lanes in downtown Toronto and a $9-million study on the feasibility of digging a subterranean highway under Highway 401 — will allow anyone to use high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes during off-peak hours, Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said in a news release.
HOV lanes, as described on the province’s website, are already intended to help manage congestion. They are also designed to encourage carpooling and reduce “transportation-related” emissions by getting more cars off the road.
Single-occupant vehicles made up 72 per cent of traffic on provincial highways as of 2022, according to government data shared in the release Tuesday.
Right now, only vehicles with two or more occupants, buses, licensed taxis, green-plate vehicles, airport limousines, motorcycles and emergency vehicles can use HOV lanes.
HOV lanes are already available to some solo drivers, depending on what they’re driving. If you’re in a low-carbon vehicle like a plug-in hybrid or electric car, you don’t need a passenger.
Commercial vehicles longer than 6.5 metres would still be restricted from using HOV lanes under the proposed changes.
But… why? The logic of restricting these lanes to high occupancy vehicles during peak hours is to reduce congestion because there are too many cars on the other lanes. If it’s off-peak hours, then it means there are fewer cars in those lanes and everyone should be fine driving on the regular lanes. If there are still too many cars in off-peak hours, then it means you want to continue encouraging people to carpool, and HOV lanes should continue to be restricted to HOVs.
Our HOV lanes operate similarly in Minneapolis. During weekdays they are 2+ passengers or pay to play during morning and evening commute. At other times they are open to all. It’s worked pretty well since they put in the diamond lanes about 20 years ago.
Note: our traffic is not nearly as bad as bigger cities so experience may vary.
Low traffic means the other lanes are empty. To be fair, the issue in NA traffic is that you cannot smoothly merge onto the highway without causing a slowdown and aren’t switching lanes.
