Isn't this time for Chicago area to have HOV lanes? (Naperville: mover, construction)

[kyle242]

I have seen in my eyes and they indeed often zap faster during rush hours than normal lanes.

I believe Chicago would really benefit from it even though it is dense city with great public transportation, but outside the city suburbs particularly in Cook and Dupage county would reality benefit if the highways were wider to include additional left lane that would be HOV. Even inside city limit, can you imagine if we had that on northwest side on I-90 instead of one-directional express lanes. This would benefit more as the traffic is often congested on both sides.

A lot of other states in large metro areas have it. NYS, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, California, Minnesota, Washington have that. Northern Illinois should have that too.

[Ace Rothstein]

Unless things have changed, I don't believe you can turn existing lanes into HOV lanes. They must be new lanes.

[jdiddy]

Yes, the reversible on the Kennedy should definitely be HOT.

[Link N. Parker]

I have seen the problems though with HOV lanes. If one person breaks down in the lane, it causes the lane to be unusable. I travel around a lot on I.T. gigs, and I have seen in places like Dallas, the HOV lane on US 75 every morning would have a car break-down at some point during rush hour and then everyone in that lane would be backed up for miles, because the lane had those white pylons installed and people could not get out of the lane, or traffic was moving too quickly for them to be able to exit even when there were no pylons.

[chirack]

For most of Chicago, esp. the expressways are too narrow for it. I don't see the benefit. If you didn't want or need the car, you simply would have used Metra or the EL. I don't see the use of them on the ike(too narrow), the Kennedy(maybe if you took the reversible express lanes, but the reversible express lanes would need to be rebuilt to allow access to the rest of the Kennedy and I am not sure there is enough space to split those lanes). Dan Ryan has lanes aplenty. Lakeshore drive maybe.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

In Los Angeles their is talk that the diamond lanes (Car pool lanes) are not as benefitial as thought. The traffic is so bad that many times those lanes would be better served as an additional lane of traffic. On top of that, many times you have some yahoo that is going under the flow of traffic in that lane and the regular lanes are faster than the diamond lane. Others are stuck behind the slow mover causing problems.

[chet everett]

Once upon time LSD had retractable hydraulcally operated lane dividers. They were an engineering marvel but a maintenance nightmare that were eliminated in the 1970s. The fact is lane dividers then and now really don't help more traffic but do create additional delays, accidents and aggravation.

I agree with others that have mentioned the FACT that any sane person in our region that can take advantage of rail lines does and the burden of HOV lanes would squeeze out folks almost certainly are 'forced" to drive because of either work schedule or lack of access tto rail in their area. Why make things worse?

BTW Blago did back a few studies of HOV lanes and both IDOT and the ISTHA found there was little reason to proceed with such things as the range of negatives far outweighed any benefits. I believe a related study did suggest the "express bus on shoulder" route that does run on the Stevenson so there is at least something positive to say about the study. Funny thing too is Blago did these studies to show how "different" he was from Georgie boy when he proceeded to spend billions on the rebuild of the Hillside area interchange where 290 & 88 join despite the fact that engineers said it would just shift the tie-ups a few miles east, which as anyone that drives this route can postively state is 100% true. And Blago ended up just as willing to break laws as Georgie...

[kyle242]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

In Los Angeles their is talk that the diamond lanes (Car pool lanes) are not as benefitial as thought. The traffic is so bad that many times those lanes would be better served as an additional lane of traffic. On top of that, many times you have some yahoo that is going under the flow of traffic in that lane and the regular lanes are faster than the diamond lane. Others are stuck behind the slow mover causing problems.

According to CalTrans website, diamond lines are under construction in LA. If they are so horribly not beneficial why is project not on hold?

Furthermore in Bay Area, I have seen diamond lines working fine especially on I-280 between San Jose and Mountain View. Often I have seen moving vehicles a little faster. There are slow moving looms but this hasn't caused problems because those lanes don't have dividers up there.

[kyle242]

Originally Posted by chet everett

I agree with others that have mentioned the FACT that any sane person in our region that can take advantage of rail lines does and the burden of HOV lanes would squeeze out folks almost certainly are 'forced" to drive because of either work schedule or lack of access tto rail in their area. Why make things worse?

Not everybody works in Chicago downtown. What about folks who work in Schaumburg, Northbrook, other suburbs in Chicagoland? Especially those who also live in remote suburbs and would not take advantage of CTA or Metra (and so far Metra only goes between the city and suburbs but not between suburbs like Schaumburg-Naperville).

I-290 would not get advantage of HOV line because its too narrow, but I would see it beneficial for I-294 tollway.

[chirack]

Originally Posted by kyle242

Not everybody works in Chicago downtown. What about folks who work in Schaumburg, Northbrook, other suburbs in Chicagoland? Especially those who also live in remote suburbs and would not take advantage of CTA or Metra (and so far Metra only goes between the city and suburbs but not between suburbs like Schaumburg-Naperville).

I-290 would not get advantage of HOV line because its too narrow, but I would see it beneficial for I-294 tollway.

One thing you learn from living in this region is that you don't want to be too remote from work due to snow storm and 294 compared to most expressways isn't that backed up, either during rush or other times.