Why is it clear to the motorists of this city, but not the people that run it, that HOV lanes DO NOT WORK?  Since when have you met someone who saw a bus go a little bit faster in an empty lane on Eglinton Ave., and said, "I am going to give up my leather seat with climate control, quad-speaker CD sound, to get in a stinky, overcrowded, cold bus?"  Answer: NEVER!

HOV Lanes are for the most part, respected - with gridlock the only result.  Canadians are amazingly compliant people - fish - and will sit and stew for miles in an overcrowded roadway while one lane remains empty.  Only when one brave soul ventures out and says "screw it" do others follow.  Instead, you need to write to the Toronto politicians, post to our message board, or write me, the Toronto Traffic Webmaster, and tell them to take their HOV Lanes and shove them.

Instead, I propose to build more roads.  We pay enough for them in our 50% gas tax - granted the city doesn't get its share of that - but would they even use it on roads anyway?  Probably not.  We also need to privatize transit.  If you want to run a bus, you should be able to - just like a taxi.  Why does the TTC deserve a monopoly?  Why does any business?
 
 

 

From Toronto Star - Dec. 27 1999 Commuter Corner                                   Joseph Hall                    Proposal for HOV lanes is picking up more                   speed                    TTC chief Rick Ducharme has said he could solve many of the                   city's traffic woes with a can of white paint.                   What he had in mind was marking out, with white diamonds, a                   network of high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes throughout the                   city.                    These lanes, HOV supporters argue, would ease our chronic                   congestion by making it easier to take transit and harder to take                   the car.                    By allowing buses to run in virtually open roadways during                   rush hour, HOV lanes would encourage people to leave their                   cars at home and hop the TTC to work.                    Single-occupant vehicles would be relegated to already                   overcrowded lanes, while buses, car poolers and taxis whiz by                   in another lane.                    Torontonians may soon be seeing diamonds all over.                    City planning and transportation officials have taken a new                   shine to the diamond lane idea and are currently polishing off                   an old plan for an extensive city network.                    ``I'd say it's certainly back on the agenda,'' says Toronto roads                   chief Dave Kaufman.                    ``Traffic is getting to the point now where we have to look at                   the idea again.''                    The idea is laid out in detail in a 1992 Metro report that was                   shelved during the city's hard recession.                    What the plan proposes is an alteration of the city's street                   network, eventually turning many major arterial roadways into                   HOV routes.                    Going east and west, for example, Steeles, Finch and Eglinton                   Aves. would be largely given over to HOVs, along with parts of                   Dundas St., Lake Shore Blvd. and the Wilson Ave.-York Mills                   Rd.-Ellesmere Rd. connection.                    Going north and south, large segments of Kipling Ave., Jane                   St., Dufferin St., University Ave., Avenue Rd., Don Mills Rd.,                   Victoria Park Ave. and McCowan and Markham Rds. would                   have HOV lanes.                    It will, of course, take more than a can of white paint to                   accomplish this transformation.                    Some roads would have to be widened and others would have                   to be extended.                    While the plan is to be implemented in stages, users of HOV                   lanes should initially notice trip savings of five minutes or more.                   The biggest obstacle to the plan will be political. Votes talk                   loudly at city hall, where the HOV decision will ultimately be                   made. Drivers, naturally, will resent being plugged into a                   crowded lane while an open one sits just across the dotted line.                   And, as anyone using the HOV segment of downtown Bay St.                   knows, this resentment can lead to the daily disregard of the                   HOV regulations.                    The plan calls for beefed-up police enforcement as well as a                   snitch line pilot project.                    There is also a positive way to ensure compliance, Kaufman                   says, and that's to lessen driver resentment. If bus traffic in the                   diamond lanes is heavy enough for people to see the vehicles                   on a regular basis, the feeling of being cheated is eased, he                   says.                    This would require buses to run more frequently along the                   routes, leading to quicker, more comfortable transit trips.                    The biggest advantage the HOV concept has, however, is a                   growing understanding among politicians and the general                   public that transit is the only route out of the city's worsening                   traffic crisis.                    ``We have to rely on transit,'' Kaufman says.                    Drivers will simply have to take a back seat in Toronto's                   transportation future.                    Readers can contact Joseph Hall by phone at (416) 869-4390                   or e-mail at gjhall@thestar.ca

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