How much time does the 279 HOV lane save? (Bellevue, Duquesne: camp, summer)

[jhm15217]

... at rush hours, of course.

[Craziaskowboi]

Maybe 10 or 15 minutes?

[greg42]

It really depends a lot upon where you're going and of course on the traffic that day and time. Around 8am and maybe a half hour on either side is usually the heaviest inbound traffic and around 5:30-6 outbound. But, on a Friday in the summer it'll probably save next to nothing regardless of where you go. But it does give you some tricks. Examples:

Inbound on a normal day, regardless of HOV entrance, if you exit just to get back onto 279 ahead of the Ft Duquesne Bridge, it probably only saves about 5 minutes. But if you use it to get up to Bedford Ave at the old arena, you might be saving a few more, close to 10 min perhaps. You also get the extra exit to the North Shore at the 9th Street Bridge which can be handy.

Outbound can be even more rewarding IMO. If you enter at Bedford Ave when you would normally be taking 579/Veterans Bridge, you save at least 10 minutes at peak 5:30-ish time. And if you would normally exit at Perrysville Ave towards West View, you'll probably save another 10 minutes with the HOV because of the usual backup at normal Perrysville Ave exit. Even if you're entering HOV at 9th Street and just exiting back onto 279 it'll save several minutes. Exiting HOV at McKnight would save an additional couple minutes over the typical McKnight exit backup.

Inbound would save quite a bit more (possibly 10 minutes) if the HOV lane could be extended past the Camp Horne Rd exit, as there's a heavy backup now at peak from usually about Camp Horne to where it crunches back to 2 lanes past Bellevue/Westview. Such an extension would only save a couple extra minutes on outbound.

The HOV is not especially helpful if your route is to continue far to the east or to the south of downtown. If going east to Oakland and Shadyside, use the Bedford Ave exit and make your way over to Forbes or around in a circle onto Bigelow. But if you need to head east on the Parkway, it may not make sense to use the HOV. You can bypass the Perrysville Ave to Veterans Bridge traffic but that's about it.