WASHINGTON: Express Toll Lanes Continuous Access Demonstration
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has developed a 230 lane-mile system of freeway HOV lanes in the Puget Sound region that have been a popular and well-used enhancement to the freeway system. In the past decade most Puget Sound HOV lanes have become so well used that they have lost some of their speed and reliability advantage and fail to meet state and federal performance goals. To remedy this, WSDOT is testing HOT lanes on a pilot basis in the SR 167 corridor, and is developing a dual-lane express toll lane facility on I-405. A pivotal system planning decision faces us on whether and where to adopt a continuous access treatment for express toll lanes. Our SR 167 HOT lane pilot project and design of I-405 express toll lanes have used designated access points consistent with most HOT and express toll lane facilities in the country today. However, limiting access to designated locations has proven to be one of the most controversial elements of our SR167 HOT lane pilot project, and designated access will be difficult to implement on other facilities such as I-5 and I-90 due to right-of-way constraints.
This project will re-stripe the SR167 HOT lane system to demonstrate near-continuous access, provide information and outreach to Good to Go! Customers and the public, as well as perform a before and after evaluation of the system.
Project Status
Open to Traffic
The physical changes to the roadway to achieve continuous access were completed in late summer of 2014. Operations have been very successful and the public support for the change has been high. WSDOT partnered with the University of Washington Transportation Research Center (TRAC) to complete the analysis, which is available for download on the WSDOT Web site.
For More Information Contact
Jennifer Charlebois
Tolling Division
Washington State DOT
Email: Charlej@wsdot.wa.gov
