HOV lanes on freeways around Chicago? (tax, bus, moving)

[rkothari]

I was wondering if freeways/highways connecting Chicago to the suburbs have HOV (carpool) lanes? Particularly the I-90...

Thanks

[Drover]

No.

[rkothari]

Thanks!

[paytonc]

According to this week's Crain's, plans to add HOV lanes (probably actually HOT, or High Occupancy/Toll) on the suburban tollways have been put on hold for now. I'm not sure why the express lanes on I-90 aren't HOV lanes, but whatever.

The only diamond lanes I've seen in this region are a few bus lanes around downtown, and those aren't all that well enforced.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by paytonc

...
I'm not sure why the express lanes on I-90 aren't HOV lanes, but whatever.
...

Probably because they've never been shown to actually improve the flow of traffic. Overall smoother-flowing traffic saves more fuel than the small number of drivers being incentivized to carpool (let's face it, most HOV lane users use it because they happen to have 2 people in the car, not because they decided to carpool just to be able to use the lanes).

[Drover]

Originally Posted by paytonc

I'm not sure why the express lanes on I-90 aren't HOV lanes, but whatever.

Probably because doing so would, on the net, make congestion even worse.

[Markxxx]

Chicago had serious plans for HOV lanes many years, decades ago.

What changed, was the El/Subway now runs between the expressways. This was considered the equivelent of an HOV lane

[It'sAutomatic]

Yes, the CTA and Metra trains are our HOV lanes.

[kyle242]

I relocated from Chicagoland to California, Bay Area which has HOV (free and HOT) and in some areas they help, move faster than general purpose lanes and in some they don't really. Personally I think if they are seperated by broken regular lanes that allow cars to enter/exit anytime it makes situation worse especially for general purpose lanes when they get blocked by folks moving from HOV lanes to exit.

But if a HOV lane is separated by continuous lane which has exit to a freeway via dedicated elevated ramp, with mix of single occupancy use for a toll fee determined by level of congestion like on I-680 then its good.

They should get rid off single occupancy hybrid, electric vehicle from HOV lanes though and instead provide incentive via tax dollars. Nothing more irritating than seeing a hybrid Prius on carpool lane driving slower than the rest of traffic.

[cubssoxfan]

Nothing more irritating than HOV lanes