Why are the 290 HOV lanes timed backwardly? (Houston, Howe: house, college)

[Mr. Clutch]

Took the freeway yesterday and noticed that the westbound (outbound) HOV restriction for the left lane is active in the morning hours, while the eastbound (inbound) HOV restriction is active in the afternoon. All of the rest of the freeways are the exact opposite. What's the deal here? I find it really hard to believe that 290 has more demand westbound in the morning and eastbound in the afternoon, but there's got to be some theoretically logical reason for this.

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by Mr. Clutch

Took the freeway yesterday and noticed that the westbound (outbound) HOV restriction for the left lane is active in the morning hours, while the eastbound (inbound) HOV restriction is active in the afternoon. All of the rest of the freeways are the exact opposite. What's the deal here? I find it really hard to believe that 290 has more demand westbound in the morning and eastbound in the afternoon, but there's got to be some theoretically logical reason for this.

Logical? Not sure. But here's the reason...

They already have a dedicated HOT lane (that lane in the middle between barriers). They work normal hours, inbound in the morning, outbound in the afternoon. So Metro decides they need to create some HOV lanes for reverse commuters, so they took the left lane of the regular freeway, outbound in the morning (6-9am), and inbound in the afternoon (3-6pm), and designated it for 2+ only (and buses).

Does this make sense? Will anyone use it? Will other drivers not use it?

Who knows.


PS: Please don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger.

[timtemtym]

I thought that too until I realized there is a dedicated carpool only lane in the middle of the freeway. They should have just gone Seattle style on it and made 3 middle lanes that are inbound until noon and then outbound until midnight. But Houston is starting to get that spread out city traffic where people aren't just going into the core in the morning and out in the evenings, so I guess this way made more sense. With more of these corporate campuses popping up on the edges of the metro, it is going to make our current system of wheel and spoke not work so well in the future.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by timtemtym

I thought that too until I realized there is a dedicated carpool only lane in the middle of the freeway. They should have just gone Seattle style on it and made 3 middle lanes that are inbound until noon and then outbound until midnight. But Houston is starting to get that spread out city traffic where people aren't just going into the core in the morning and out in the evenings, so I guess this way made more sense. With more of these corporate campuses popping up on the edges of the metro, it is going to make our current system of wheel and spoke not work so well in the future.

Still better than having 90% of the workers commute into the core in the morning and out in the afternoon.

The HOV lanes on the inside of each direction on 290 are there to provide faster commutes for people going the opposite direction of the main flow. It provides more flexibility in less space than having dedicated lanes behind barriers.

[Mr. Football]

METRO has no claim to those lanes. They have their own super wide HOV lane. However, as soon as the 290 project was nearing completion, they proposed to use the those lanes as HOV lanes during "off-peak" hours. I would bet the house that at some point they will try and claim them for "peak" hours. If they attempt to do this, it'll be like kicking a hornets nest.

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by Mr. Football

METRO has no claim to those lanes. They have their own super wide HOV lane. However, as soon as the 290 project was nearing completion, they proposed to use the those lanes as HOV lanes during "off-peak" hours. I would bet the house that at some point they will try and claim them for "peak" hours. If they attempt to do this, it'll be like kicking a hornets nest.

The US Dept of Transportation paid for almost all of the 290 widening/rebuild. One of their conditions was all of these various HOV/HOT lanes be created. They wouldn't allocate the money unless more was done to push more efficient commuting. So it's not really Metro "claiming" these lanes, as much as the USDoT requiring it.



Disclaimer: I am not taking a stand for/against the lanes, merely reporting what I know.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by timtemtym

With more of these corporate campuses popping up on the edges of the metro, it is going to make our current system of wheel and spoke not work so well in the future.

What corporate campuses? Compaq demolished 2 buildings before handing them over to Lone Star College. Fluor has opened their campus to through traffic.

All I see are mid-rises being built all over town. Marathon was in the news recently because of the fire stair collapse. Surprisingly Conoco relocated across the street to mid-rise trio. Shell's new Woodcreek campus is a matching trio.

Originally Posted by WRM20

Still better than having 90% of the workers commute into the core in the morning and out in the afternoon.

The HOV lanes on the inside of each direction on 290 are there to provide faster commutes for people going the opposite direction of the main flow. It provides more flexibility in less space than having dedicated lanes behind barriers.

I was surprised that there still aren't many people taking the 229 Park-and-Ride line to Downtown, despite the GQP-forced reopening. Metro's limited P&R service might be the reason why the first floor on the Grand Parkway garage had few cars and the upper levels were empty. People deciding to drive to Downtown instead doesn't explain why rush-hour traffic is back to early-2010s levels!

[Mr. Football]

Originally Posted by astrohip

The US Dept of Transportation paid for almost all of the 290 widening/rebuild. One of their conditions was all of these various HOV/HOT lanes be created. They wouldn't allocate the money unless more was done to push more efficient commuting. So it's not really Metro "claiming" these lanes, as much as the USDoT requiring it.



Disclaimer: I am not taking a stand for/against the lanes, merely reporting what I know.

We, the taxpayers paid for the 290 rebuild. We are the constituents who use this publicly funded asset on a daily basis. We fund METRO. We can choose NOT to fund METRO. We can DEFUND METRO.

Metro is a horribly run government entity that chooses to spend the money of Harris County residents on toy pet projects - like Uptown / Galleria, building pseudo train/buses that have low ridership numbers, driving on expensive, dedicated freeway flyovers, and highly manicured, under-utilized lanes.

It's time to take a good hard look at METRO.

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by Mr. Football

We, the taxpayers paid for the 290 rebuild. We are the constituents who use this publicly funded asset on a daily basis. We fund METRO. We can choose NOT to fund METRO. We can DEFUND METRO.

This is far easier to say, than to actually do. Sure, "we" paid for it. But the reality is, the US Dept of Transportation funded it, and they set the rules. That's like saying "we paid for the IRS", and we want to defund them. Let me know how that goes.

Defunding Metro would require multiple government entities to sign on. Never gonna happen.

[Mr. Football]

Don't be so sure. Things are kind of weird these days.

People aren't happy.