Legislature Should Block WSDOT Two-lane I-405

(This post was prompted by a  ETA presentation)

Legislature Should Block WSDOT Two Lane I-405 HOT 

The whole premise for HOT is that fees can be set to limit the number of vehicles to what’s required to maintain the desired speed.  A typical example is that achieving 45 mph requires limiting the number of vehicles to 2000 per hour.   The most rational justification for doing so is the HOT lane can reliably assure the desired speed for the high capacity bus routes needed to attract more commuters.  While a +2HOV lane doubles the lane capacity to 4000 commuters, a high-capacity bus can accommodate more than 100 commuters.   Up to 900 buses per hour use a single lane into Manhattan.  A single HOT  I-5 lane could easily facilitate BRT with capacity far in excess of what’s needed to reduce congestion.   

The problem in our area is Sound Transit  has refused to add the parking and bus service needed for HOT lanes to increase public transit commuting.  All the current P&R lots with access to major roadways are already full.  (The 12/03 post detailed how the parking fees from 3 Pay-to-Park lots near Lynnwood ($10) and 2 near Everett ($15) would allow 20,000 more commuters to use public transit each day.)  Instead they’ve spent that last 10 years promoting Prop 1 and ST3 extensions that will do absolutely nothing to increase transit capacity into Seattle along I-5 or I-90 corridors.

Meanwhile along I-405, the WSDOT is planning to to implement, not one, but two HOT lanes  between Lynnwood and Renton.  Again Sound Transit is refusing to add the parking and bus service to take advantage of the justification for even a single lane; namely reliable high-capacity vehicle velocities. 

My “interest” in HOT prompted me to attend a  2/21/18 presentation to the Eastside Transportation Association (ETA) by Kim Henry, Program Director for the I-405/SR 167 Corridor Program.  He  detailed  WSDOT plans to improve traffic flow along the entire corridor, part of which dealt with plans for HOT.  Expanding on a Seattle Times Dec 25^th  (and updated on Jan. 2^nd) Traffic Lab article concerning HOT, “I-405 express toll lanes between Renton and Bellevue are on their way”.   It included the following excerpts detailing planning and cost:

In 2019, work crews on Interstate 405 will start building a new lane in each direction between Renton and Bellevue, as part of a series of changes that aim to improve traffic flow on what officials call Washington’s worst corridor for congestion.

Then, five years later, the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) will open the new lanes, and an existing one each way, to traffic as express toll lanes, extending the interstate’s current tolling system between Lynnwood and Bellevue that opened in 2015.

WSDOT will spend $1.22 billion on the upcoming project, funded by the statewide gas-tax increase approved by the Legislature in 2015.

The article also included purported benefits for two HOT lanes:

WSDOT says the upcoming I-405 project will cut driving time in the general-purpose lanes by about 30 percent

The WSDOT apparently doesn’t recognize reducing the numbers of vehicles in the HOV lane increases the number of vehicles and congestion in GP lanes.  Again, a single HOT lane could accommodate far more buses than needed to reduce congestion.  But, again, Sound Transit refuses to add the thousands of parking stalls and delays any BRT service until 2024.  

The WSDOT I-405 HOT lanes are currently failing to meet the 45-mph requirement for 90% of the peak commute between Lynnwood and Bellevue.  They ignore the “possibility” that congestion on the remaining GP lanes is forcing too many commuters to use HOT.  Their solution is to reduce the number of HOT users by increasing tolls above the current $10.00 limit and is looking for authority to do so. 

While raising the fees will reduce HOT congestion, they could impose them on a single HOT lane and raise them to whatever’s required to meet 45 mph.  The remaining lane could be converted to GP use, providing additional capacity and reducing congestion. The reduced GP lane congestion would lessen the incentive for commuters to pay for HOT and minimize the fee increase. 

During Henry’s presentation I asked why they didn’t consider single-lane HOT with fares set to limit traffic to maintain 45 mph.  He said they had considered it and would discuss it later.  He never did.  Instead the WSDOT is preceding with plans to add a second HOT lane between Lynnwood and Bothell and to implement HOT on the existing HOV lane and new lane between Bellevue and Renton. Clearly the WSDT is more interested in increasing revenue than in reducing congestion. 

The bottom line is the legislature, at least so far, has shown no interest in requiring an audit of Sound Transit that would expose the “likely” failure of their $54 billion ST3 “Prop 1 and Beyond” light rail spine to reduce I-5 and I-90 congestion.  Meanwhile, along I-405, the WSDOT solution to “Washington’s worst corridor for congestion” is the claim implementation of two HOT lanes between Lynnwood and Renton will reduce GP lane congestion by 30%. 

One can only hope the members of the House and Senate Transportation committees can recognize that absurdity and use their WSDOT oversight responsibility to require they limit HOT along the entire I-405 corridor to one lane.  If past is prolog I’m not optimistic.