The Problems with HOV in the Southwest Corridor and How They are Solved with Monorail

CAMPO has recently emphasized adding a high occupancy vehicle lane on the southern end of MoPac (Loop1) from the Barton Creek GreenBelt to Town Lake as reported by the Austin Statesman's Kelly Daniel in her column on Monday, Febrary 18th, 2002. This recent decision was made by CAMPO earlier in the month.

As reported in her column, this high-occupancy lane would be a single lane that would be separated from other lanes and presumably would not require expansion of the road. According to Daniel, 'Central Texas transportation planners have worked for years on the idea of HOVs on MoPac, U.S. 183 and I-35 and still don't have a good solution for where drivers would exit the lane in downtown Austin. Cesar Chavez Street? Fifth and Sixth streets? Somewhere else?'

Daniel also states that 'CAMPO voted 10-9 to recommend the study. That's created a kind of Catch-22 about the HOV lane's future. The state cannot proceed until it gets formal resolutions of support from Capital Metro and the Austin City Council.'

We believe that utilization problems and accidents are just some of the few problems with HOV lanes and that Monorail provides a better solution for this route. We compare the distances of our proposed Southwest Monorail commuter route with the distance down MoPac proposed for the HOV lanes:

SOUTHWEST CORRIDOR DISTANCES (MONORAIL)

DISTANCE DOWN MOPAC EXPRESSWAY

This mileage was checked to see the potential disparity in distances between the construction of an HOV lane and a monorail.  As you can see, the distances compare as follows:

THE PROBLEMS WITH HOV

1. High Occupancy Vehicle lanes are notoriously underused; very few vehicles ever qualify, even with the ‘incentive’ of speedier transit to one’s destination;

2. HOV is designed for suburban traffic since the southern entrance/exit is so far south; very few Austinites would ever be able to access the HOV lane even if they had 3 riders;

3. Accidents can and do occur on an HOV lane, causing traffic to back up for miles; it is harder to get rescue vehicles & equipment onto an HOV lane, and the rest of the freeway is tied up with workers having to straddle the barriers;

4. In Houston, a police officer and squad car must be stationed on each HOV lane during its hours of operation to insure compliance with the ridership regulations.  It is anticipated that Austin would have to do the same.  This adds an incredible annual expense.

THE ADVANTAGES TO MONORAIL IN THE PROJECTED SW CORRIDOR

1. Absolutely guaranteed reliability.  From the time you board the Monorail, you know what time you’ll arrive downtown; trains run at 35-40 mph between stations;

2. The proposed route relieves traffic on Mopac from four sources: the Pinnacle/Triangle area of Hwy 71 and 290, from people coming up on South Mopac, from residents who live in the William Cannon - Slaughter areas; and from people who normally would enter Mopac at the Ben White/Cap of Texas Hwy ramp;

3. In-city Austinites would be able to enjoy the benefits of this speedy transit; this is transit designed for people, for their comfort and for their safe and speedy transit;

4. Express trains could run with all-station trains if there were sufficient demand;

5. Park & Rides would be conveniently placed at the Triangle area, at Mopac & William Cannon, and at Ben White and Lamar.

6. Thousands more people would ride this transit than those who would ever or could ever qualify for an HOV lane.

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