Transit Miami

2 Responses to “I-95 Motor Speedway Update”

1. 1 Lissette
   Jul 13th, 2007 at 10:21 am

   In theory this sounds great, but I really don’t know how this will work. First off, those little plastic polls that they want to put up to avoid people from using these lanes are just that…plastic. They can be run over very easily (I know from experience) with no damage to the car. I really don’t see that as much of a barrier.

   I think that if they really wanted to implement something like this that they should look at how Washington DC is set up. They have a middle lanes that are are separated by concrete barriers. Traffic can flow in either direction depending on the time of day and which way the traffic is congested the most and this is directed by drop arms, like the kind you see in parking garages, to let you know if you can enter this area or not. I don’t remember if they charged a toll for this, but I’m sure that would be easy to implement here with the Sunpass system.

2. 2 Anonymous
   Jul 13th, 2007 at 2:01 pm

   The separated reversible HOV lanes in the DC area (like I-95 in northern Virginia) are free but require at least three occupants to use them. I can’t see that type of design happening here because of our right-of-way limitations (that’s why they’re talking about narrowing the existing lanes in order to make room for these). They also have their own dedicated exit ramps that are separate from regular traffic, so you wouldn’t have to break out of the HOV (you couldn’t anyway because of the concrete barrier) and cut across the regular traffic to get to your exit.

   Apparently with these HOT lanes, you’re expected to exit the lanes between the gaps in the plastic dividers and move over to the exit lane to get off, so it makes me wonder how much time you’d actually save by using the toll lanes if you have to cut across slow-moving traffic to ultimately get off (unless of course, you’re taking a direct long-haul trip into or out of downtown).

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