Move over, 401 drivers

Regular lane may turn carpool-only Suggestion part of gridlock plan

In a dramatic shift, the Ontario government will consider taking away a lane from regular traffic on Highway 401 and handing it over for use by carpoolers, buses and emergency vehicles.

Transportation Minister Harinder Takhar made the suggestion yesterday during an interview following the official announcement that the province’s first highway carpool lanes will open on Highway 404 and Highway 403 on Dec. 13.

“ We might have to do that if that will relieve congestion, but we need to do that on an asneeded basis,” Takhar said. “ If we can take a certain percentage of cars off the highway, it would make sense, even on the 401.”

“ We must make better use of the roads that we have,” he said. The move to more carpooling is part of the province’s plan to ease gridlock. The minister said the province would consider widening Highways 400 and 407 and the Queen Elizabeth Way to add carpool lanes, officially called High Occupancy Vehicle, or HOV lanes. But through Toronto, Highway 401 cannot be widened.

Before yesterday Takhar had been firm in saying the province wouldn’t remove lanes from regular traffic to make room for carpoolers.

Yesterday, the Canadian Automobile Association said taking lanes away would be a disaster.

“ We have enough congestion as it is,” said Faye Lyons, the CAA’s municipal affairs specialist. “ We don’t need to penalize commuters if carpooling is not the answer for them.” At 16 lanes wide and with 500,000 cars using the 401 at its busiest point — at the intersection with the 400 – every day, the highway is believed to be the busiest in the world.

Takhar said the province wanted to review how well the new carpool lanes work before adding more. The new lanes will run southbound on Highway 404 between Highway 7 and Highway 401 in North York, and in both directions on Highway 403 between highways 401 and 407.