[pulpfiction]

As someone relatively new to the Hartford Metro, I'm curious about the 84 HOV lanes and the plan behind them.

How big of an issue was the 84 traffic east of the river prior to them being built in the 80's?

How connected to the growth of Buckland was the 84 expansion project?

The HOV lanes dont really seem necessary today, as rush hour traffic flows pretty smoothly east of the river, in general. Is this due to economic growth in the region not living up to projections?

I know the HOV originally ended in East Hartford, thereby leaving Hartford commuters to merge back into the regular lanes and sit in traffic. However, this is no longer an issue, as one coming from east of the river can exit at route 2 and use surface streets for a bit to get to one of the big insurance employers pretty easily.

[theguyfrompluto]

Well, you can easily fit 2 lanes if those HOV lanes are removed. I-84 from Manchester to the CT 15 is 12 lanes. That can be increased to 14 if the HOV is removed. Yes, traffic in East Hartford isn't really that bad, but some days, I-84 west can be slow heading through Downtown Hartford. IMO, that stretch to me is overbuilt.

[mikelizard860]

Originally Posted by theguyfrompluto

Well, you can easily fit 2 lanes if those HOV lanes are removed. I-84 from Manchester to the CT 15 is 12 lanes. That can be increased to 14 if the HOV is removed. Yes, traffic in East Hartford isn't really that bad, but some days, I-84 west can be slow heading through Downtown Hartford. IMO, that stretch to me is overbuilt.

Removing hov lanes doesn't solve any problems because you still have a bottleneck where the highway reduces a few lanes though downtown hartford. That's what causes the traffic.

[NewJeffCT]

Originally Posted by pulpfiction

As someone relatively new to the Hartford Metro, I'm curious about the 84 HOV lanes and the plan behind them.

How big of an issue was the 84 traffic east of the river prior to them being built in the 80's?

How connected to the growth of Buckland was the 84 expansion project?

The HOV lanes dont really seem necessary today, as rush hour traffic flows pretty smoothly east of the river, in general. Is this due to economic growth in the region not living up to projections?

I know the HOV originally ended in East Hartford, thereby leaving Hartford commuters to merge back into the regular lanes and sit in traffic. However, this is no longer an issue, as one coming from east of the river can exit at route 2 and use surface streets for a bit to get to one of the big insurance employers pretty easily.

I think the HOV lanes were originally thought to be something that would be heavily used and would alleviate traffic problems east of Hartford - East Hartford, South Windsor, Manchester, Vernon/Rockville, and the suburbs off the highway (north Glastonbury, Ellington, Tolland, etc)

However, people were very hesitant to embrace them, preferring to stick to the busier interstate rather than switching over to the HOV lane. I think there were a few reasons: (1) Connecticut is still somewhat "The Land of Steady Habits" and this was change; (2) People feared they would be stuck behind Ma & Pa Kettle on their weekly trip to the market, driving 40mph in the HOV lane when the heavy traffic on the actual highway was moving 45-50; (3) The HOV lanes originally required three people to be in the vehicle, and there simply were not that many people that drove with two other people in the car with them. My parents would drive to work together and my dad would drop my mom off each day for well over 10 years together, but it was rare that there was another person in the car with them - only when I was doing a summer internship in college; and (4) And, not many people were willing to add another one or two passengers into the mix to get to 3 people in the vehicle (which is an offshoot of (1) and (3)).

They later changed it to only require two people in the vehicle, but I think it was too late by then...they were already seen as a failure that nobody used. I think the original plan was to see how they worked out east of Hartford, and then expand them west of Hartford, as well as South & North of Hartford.

When I lived in Ellington, I would use them semi-regularly. However, I was driving a Honda Odyssey mini-van at the time. The minivan had pretty dark "privacy" glass in the back, and several times I was stopped by police trying to ticket me for not having a second person in the car... until I pointed out to them my infant daughter in her car seat in the back (and, sometimes my wife would be in back with our daughter, too.) If the cops are also going to make it a pain in the rear end to even use the HOV lanes, many people won't even bother the next time. I never got a ticket, but it's still a pain in the neck to be stopped continually.

[JayCT]

Back when ConnDOT was planning for the expansion of I-84 east of Hartford, the Federal Highway Administration made it clear that they did not just want an expansion of the mainline highway and that ConnDOT had to plan for more mass transit. Thus the HOV lanes were added to the project.

I will say that the lanes were not very well thought out though. They are not easily accessible and did not really connect well with the facilities they should have beendesigned to serve. The large commuter parking lot at Buckland Street is not convenient to the lanes, nor is the entrances to Pratt & Whitney off Silver Lane. There was no access to or from the Charter Oak Bridge (and thus I-91 south of Hartford) and the lanes originally ended well short of downtown Hartford. Since then the lanes have been modified and access is now provided to Charter Oak and to the Founders Bridge.

Studies have shown however that the lanes are well used during peak hours despite appearing empty. Rather than looking at the number of vehicles in the lanes, you need to lok at how many people they carry which you will find is significant. If the lanes were eliminated and converted to travel lanes (which would be impossible to do environmentally) you would see that the highway would actually not work as well. This is true of the I-91 HOV lanes north of Hartford as well.

There are thoughts to include the lanes in some type of future rapid bus system. Once CTfastrak is running, a similar system may be implemented along the HOV lanes as well. But first we need to see how well that system is received. Jay

Moderator's Note: Please do not use this thread to begin complaining about the busway project. I will delete any off topic discussions. JayCT Moderator