This is an excellent idea. Much better than those useless HOV lanes they have now.
I hope this idea spreads to other GTA highways wherever its possible:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/12/07/toll-lanes-coming-to-ontario-highways.html
I hope this idea spreads to other GTA highways wherever its possible:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/12/07/toll-lanes-coming-to-ontario-highways.html
High-occupancy toll lane pilot project will allow motorists without passengers to pay to use high-occupancy-vehicle lanes.
A stretch of the Queen Elizabeth Way will become the first highway in the province to operate with high-occupancy toll lanes, Ontario’s transportation minister announced Monday morning. The high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes pilot project will be launched between Trafalgar Road in Oakville and Guelph Line in Burlington next summer, Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca said. “By providing more options, we are helping to manage congestion, which will help keep this region moving,” he said. The HOT lanes will allow motorists without passengers to pay to use high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, which were designed to encourage carpooling.
Del Duca said about 1,000 permits would be issued during the pilot project, but did not say how much they would cost.
Travel in the HOT lanes will remain free for cars with two or more occupants. Last summer, temporary HOV lanes that were put in place during the Pan Am Games required at least three people in a vehicle.
HOT lanes were originally proposed as a way to raise money for infrastructure in Dalton McGuinty’s 2013 budget. Following the QEW pilot project, the first dedicated HOT lanes with electronic tolling will be on Highway 427, from south of Highway 409 to north of Rutherford Rd., when that highway extension opens by 2021. Del Duca said the government expects about five million single-occupancy vehicles will pay to use HOT lanes on Highway 427. “Anything that we can do to be creative, to alleviate congestion on our highways, helps,” he said.
“This is one part, it’s an important part, but it’s one part of our transportation plan for the region and the province.” The Liberals announced last month that they planned to create HOT lanes only where there are existing HOV lanes, which are free for any driver with at least one passenger. Del Duca added that HOV and HOT lanes could also be created on any new or expanded highways, like the stretch of Highway 401 near Cambridge, Ont., that the government is expanding.
His November announcement coincided with a report by Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission, a coalition of economists, which endorsed the idea of toll roads and “congestion fees” to help cities and provinces deal with traffic problems. But when Del Duca made the announcement, he received criticism from both Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats, who said Ontarians don’t want their roads taxed.
NDP leader Andrea Horwath went as far as to brand the roads with the name of a high-end carmaker. “The Lexus lanes are not something I think is the right way to go,” she said in November