The end game for HOV lanes

Ontario’s move to add HOT lanes to the QEW next month will be controversial, as always, but the pilot program is overdue and worthwhile.

There remain, however, many questions about allowing single-occupant vehicles into high-occupancy (HOV) lanes. Then again, that’s what such programs are designed to address. The new HOT lanes, or highoccupancy toll lanes, will be a first in Canada, and are aimed at reducing traffic congestion. Some questions have already been answered: The lanes will be tested on the Queen Elizabeth Way between Burlington and Oakville, starting September 15, for two to four years.

Drivers can apply to buy a three-month permit for $180, but only 1,000 will be sold during each period. The successful applicants will be chosen by lottery. They will be given stickers to place on their front and back windshields. Other questions remain: How popular will they be? If the program is oversubscribed, does it signal a need to step up the inevitable long-term plans for electronic toll lanes? And when will other HOV lanes in Ontario be converted, if ever?

How difficult will it be to enforce the new regulations? It’s a matter of fact (and utterly predictable) that many motorists abuse the HOV lanes. Indeed, so far this year police in the GTA have issued 1,300 charges to single-occupant vehicles in high-occupancy lanes. Last year, the total was 4,200.

Is that enough? An unscientific study by The Spectator recently found that three in 10 motorists are using the HOV lanes illegally.

Vehicles with green licence plates, buses, emergency vehicles and licensed taxis will continue to be allowed any time in the lanes, but will we someday return to a system in place last summer during the Pan Am Games, when all other vehicles required three occupants?

Finally, is the pilot program a way to work out the logistical bugs — or the political ones?

Is it simply a way to nudge Ontario motorists into car pools or public transit? Are Ontario’s roads already at the breaking point in terms of traffic congestion?

If so, wouldn’t it be better to simply follow other jurisdictions across the United States and beyond, which have set up hundreds of kilometres of permanent HOT lanes, which seem to be working effectively?

The final question — who benefits? — will be debated for years. The government, to be sure, will have some extra income.

But is it only those who can afford the HOT pass, as some charge, or does everyone benefit from getting vehicles into other lanes or off the road altogether?