Plan to extend Highway 50 carpool lanes from where the westbound Highway 50 carpool lane ends near Sunrise Boulevard are underway.  The high-occupancy vehicle, or HOV, lane has been operating since 2002, each direction on Highway 50 between Rancho Cordova and El Dorado Hills.  Now CalTrans preparing to extend the lanes from the suburbs to the city.

Some say carpool lanes offer a way to get more vehicles off the road, reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality. Opponents say they make the problems worse, that building freeway carpool lanes leads to sprawling development and siphons funding from alternative transportation projects and use of transit in the Highway 50 corridor. 

To build the proposed lanes, CalTrans would remove a metal guardrail and add carpool lanes down the center from Sunrise Boulevard to Ninth Street in downtown Sacramento.  On and off ramps would be elevated for the lanes in the central city. Discussion now is on how and where those lanes should end because adding lanes and "drop" ramps in the median of a concrete bridge that merges traffic from four busy expressways - including Interstate 5, the Capitol City Freeway and Highway 99 - poses complex engineering and construction challenges.

Preliminary engineering and an environmental study are under way and Caltrans is hosting public workshops in Sacramento and Rancho Cordova to hear comment about alternative configurations proposed for the project, according to Caltrans project manager Donna Berry.

The project is expected to cost $100 million, depending on the alternative.

According to a 2004 Caltrans study during peak traffic hours, vehicle and rider counts for carpool lanes on Sacramento freeways exceed state standards for HOV lanes. On Highway 99, the carpool lane moves more than twice as many people per hour as regular lanes, the report said.  The 2004 Caltrans study also said carpoolers saved an average of eight minutes during peak commute time when compared with regular-lane motorists.

Besides Highway 50, Highway 99 from midtown Sacramento to Elk Grove and Interstate 80 from the Capitol City Freeway to the Placer County line have carpool lanes.  And SACOG, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments which oversees regional transportation funding, plans additional carpool lanes through 2025 on Interstate 5 between Sacramento International Airport and Meadowview.

On Interstate 80, SACOG plans carpool lanes from Davis to the Highway 50 junction; from Interstate 5 to the Capitol City Freeway; and from the Sacramento-Placer county line to Highway 65 in Roseville. Meanwhile, in El Dorado County, Caltrans is planning HOV lanes on Highway 50 from El Dorado Hills to Shingle Springs.

According to state law, special freeway lanes for carpools, vanpools and transit buses are intended to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality. In the Sacramento region, another reason is to improve access to major job centers in downtown, south Placer County and Rancho Cordova-Folsom, according to SACOG Planning Director Ken Hough.

Robb Matteoni and his eight El Dorado County vanpool riders meet in Shingle Springs at 6 a.m., pick up riders in Cameron Park, and leave the foothills each morning, arriving at work off Bradshaw Road bout 35 minutes later.  The key to their 26-mile commute is the carpool lane between El Dorado Hills Boulevard and Sunrise Boulevard.  Matteoni says it would probably take more an hour or an hour and 15 minutes to get to work without the HOV lane, and it would be a lot more stressful and costly gas-wise.

The fact that carpool lanes make travel faster is a chief reason some people oppose them. Critics say HOV projects encourage sprawl by making it easier to commute long distances between home and work - resulting in even more vehicles on the road, more traffic congestion and more air pollution.

In 2001, the Sacramento City Council voted 8-1 against a Caltrans plan to study carpool lanes for Highway 50, warning that lanes would hurt efforts to encourage "smart growth" development in older urban neighborhoods - including infill projects and higher-density housing - without increasing carpooling. Caltrans eventually won approval for the Highway 50 study from regional transportation agencies, including SACOG.

Opponents - including advocates for the environment, neighborhoods and public transit - are expected to fight the proposed HOV extension from Rancho Cordova to downtown. claiming it would increase traffic by adding another open freeway lane on Highway 50 outside commute hours, resulting in more vehicles flowing into downtown. They are concerned also that elevated on-and offramps proposed for the carpool lanes would be "monstrosities."

Critics refer to studies by Robert Johnston, professor of environmental science and policy at the University of California, Davis, who has researched carpool lanes for 15 years.

Johnston said studies show HOV lanes actually result in worse air quality than doing nothing, because they result in more cars and longer trips on the road. He also rebutted contentions that building carpool lanes encourages more people to carpool.

In response, Hough, SACOG's planning director, said "If you build them between two of our three major employment centers, I don't believe that encourages sprawl; I think that helps those employment centers remain vibrant economically," Hough said.

Meanwhile, Caltrans also is studying traffic volumes to determine if high-occupancy toll, or HOT, lanes are suitable on Highway 50.

HOT lanes - which many consider even more controversial than HOV lanes - would be free for carpools and buses while charging fees for single motorists, depending on traffic congestion. The systems cost more to build and operate, including collection facilities and barriers to separate toll lanes from regular lanes.

WHAT'S NEXT Caltrans is hosting three community workshops to provide information and gather public comment about plans to add carpool lanes on Highway 50 from downtown Sacramento to Sunrise Boulevard. Tuesday: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. at Tsakopoulos Library Galleria, 828 I St., Sacramento. Thursday: 6 to 8 p.m. at Mills Station Community Room, 2900 Mather Field Road, Rancho Cordova. Information also is available at www.dot.ca.gov/dist3/projects/Sac50HOV/

Study shows carpool lanes are effective

A 2002 study of Los Angeles County's carpool lane system concluded that the special lanes are a key tool for alleviating the region's worsening traffic gridlock.  The lanes cut travel time for most carpoolers, encourage ride-sharing and help reduce smog.

Los Angeles has 420 miles of carpool-lanes, more than anywhere else in the country.  The study by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is the most in-depth analysis of the county's carpool-lane system to date.

MTA officials say the study's findings reinforce the agency's goal to expand the system, add nearly 250 miles of carpool lanes on nearly every freeway in the county in the next decade and connect the lanes to form a seamless regionwide system.

The MTA study included a survey of more than 3,000 residents that found that carpool lanes are enormously popular, with 88 percent public support.

However, the survey found that only about one-third of carpool trips are made by people on their way to work. Nearly half of the carpools in the county are personal or social trips, such as visits to family and friends, according to the MTA study.

The study also found that about 60 percent of carpools consist of family members--husbands, wives and children. About 40 percent carry co-workers.

Alan Pisarski, author of the book "Commuting in America," said the MTA's survey results are not surprising.

In Southern California, he noted, commuting patterns have become diffuse, with employment centers scattered throughout the region. He said that explains why most carpoolers are spouses and children, a practice that he calls fampooling.

"It's just getting harder and harder to put together a carpool with somebody who is going where you are going at the same time you are going," he said.

Diamond Lanes Helpful

Jovany Febrez, a filing clerk from Chatsworth, is an example of a leisure carpooler. He said he doesn't carpool to his Encino job because it's not convenient.

But he finds the diamond lanes are a great advantage on the weekend when he, his wife and their three children hit the road in their minivan to visit family in Pasadena or Orange County.

Still, transportation experts say, carpools that include family members can help reduce congestion and smog by giving working family members the incentive to drive together instead of taking separate cars.

The MTA survey also found that residents are almost evenly divided over whether carpool lanes get enough use. Nearly half of those surveyed said carpool lanes are underused, but just as many said carpool lanes get enough use.

Time Incentive must equal extra time required to carpool

For the most part, the county's carpool lanes have lived up to the billing.  Although some stretches of freeway fail to meet minimum thresholds for vehicle use, and others are so crowded that motorists save little time by using them, Planning chief James de la Loza expects those lanes to improve dramatically, once the system is expanded.

De la Loza hopes such improvement will take place on the Hollywood Freeway in the San Fernando Valley. The freeway's carpool lanes have been open since 1997, but still fail to meet the minimum threshold of 800 vehicles per hour, a goal recommended by most transportation agencies.

De la Loza said the carpool lanes on the Hollywood Freeway may be used too little because the segment is short--only 4.5 miles long.

On the other hand, the carpool lanes on the Orange Freeway between Orange County and the Pomona Freeway are so congested that travel speeds average less than 30 mph during rush hours. Carpoolers save less than three minutes in their commute compared with drivers who use other lanes of the freeway.

Experts say the time-saving benefit of a carpool lane must be sufficient to outweigh the time it takes to set up a daily carpool.

"It takes a lot of time to carpool," said Joy Dahlgren, a research engineer at UC Berkeley's Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways program. "You have to wait for people, to pick them up."

When carpool lanes are crowded, De la Loza said, the MTA could try to improve traffic flow by increasing the minimum occupancy from two to at least three people per car.  He said the MTA might also add more bus lines along the route.

HOV lanes for Highway 50 commuters

In spite of the fact that the 50 Corridor is jam-packed with cars, there is plenty of capacity during the peak commute hours. The excess capacity exists within the cars creeping along US 50, where one person occupies a vehicle that can accommodate four. The introduction of High Occupancy Vehicle lanes on US 50 will provide incentives for commuters to utilize that excess capacity. 

The first stretch of HOV lanes will open between Sunrise Boulevard and just west of Prairie City Road by February 2002. The second phase will extend the lanes to El Dorado Hills Boulevard, and should be completed by December 2002. Caltrans is currently studying how to also extend the lanes to the west toward the City of Sacramento. 

“While it is true that US 50 has become over-committed in the number of vehicles it is expected to carry, we have to remember that we can never build our way out of traffic congestion,” said Tip Kindell, Chair of the 50 Corridor Transportation Management Association. “A behavioral change has to take place,” he notes. “People have to realize that there are other ways to get around than driving alone in their vehicle.”

Behavior change, however, usually requires incentives. And, the incentive of providing “a fast lane” for people who chose to carpool, vanpool and take the bus has proven the key to success for many congested corridors. It is estimated that commuters can save a minute a mile when using HOV lanes as opposed to general, mixed-flow lanes. 

In fact, traffic moves so freely in the HOV lanes that often there is the perception that no one is using them. “It’s not that the lanes aren’t being used, it’s just that they move more people in fewer vehicles,” comments Jody Lonergan, Caltrans
District 3 Director. 

In the Sacramento Region, HOV lanes have been in operation along Highway 99 since 1990. By 2015, the number of jobs along the 50 Corridor will increase by 45 percent with the residential population expected to grow by 62 percent. Regional
job centers are expected to be located in downtown Sacramento, Rancho Cordova and El Dorado Hills. “This means that increasing numbers of workers will be traveling in both directions on U.S. 50,” said Lonergan. “HOV lanes and the benefits they provide will help us handle the growth headed for the 50 Corridor.”

Ins and Outs of HOV lanes

Highway 50 HOV lanes will be restricted to two or more passengers, 6:00 to 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.  The minimum fine for illegally using the HOV lanes is $271 for the first offense. Fees go into the appropriate county’s general fund to be used at the discretion of the Board of Supervisors.  A child in a car seat qualifies as a second person. 
The lanes are marked with a solid yellow line on the left (meaning don’t cross) and a wide solid white line on the right (cross any time but with caution and proper signal). 
Eligible vehicles may enter or exit the lanes at any time, but are urged to do so with caution. 
Observe all posted speed limits. 
Clean-fuel vehicles are eligible if they have a specifically noted license plate 
Buses are eligible. 
Motorcycles are allowed. 
Vehicles pulling trailers or trucks weighing more than 12,000 GVW are not eligible for HOV lanes.