State sets stage for carpool test

BY MATT HELMS • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • November 17, 2008

Earlier this year, the state hoped to roll out high-occupancy vehicle lanes on a 5-mile section of Michigan Avenue in Detroit, testing the congestion-relief method that metro areas around the country use.

The Michigan Department of Transportation put up signs and alerted drivers to the new policy, limiting one lane each way to automobiles with two or more occupants. But there was a not-so-minor problem: The Michigan Vehicle Code didn’t define what an HOV lane meant or give the state the authority to police one.

That’s changing.

Legislation passed last week to amend state law to allow for a trial run of HOV lanes on Michigan Avenue in Detroit for a limited time.

The trial run will take place while the avenue serves as an alternate route during the enormous Ambassador Bridge Gateway Project that’s rebuilding I-75 and I-96 and their connections to the international border crossing.

The bills also define what HOV lanes are and grant police the authority to ticket drivers who illegally use them.

“It should be a good opportunity to see how something like this can be part of the solution to getting people around,” said state Rep. Hoon-Yung Hopgood, D-Taylor, who sponsored the measures along with state Sen. Jud Gilbert, R-Algonac.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm supports the bills, her spokeswoman Liz Boyd said. Gilbert’s spokesman, Gabe Basso, said the bills could be on Granholm’s desk this week.

Once signed, the law would be in effect immediately, and MDOT could reestablish the HOV lanes within a few weeks.

Michigan is a latecomer to HOV lanes, which prohibit a driver from being the sole occupant of a vehicle. The point is to give carpoolers, ride-sharers and mass-transit riders a faster drive and encourage more commuters to abandon commuting alone.

There are more than 130 freeway HOV lanes or variants in major metro areas from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., according to the Federal Highway Administration. They’ve been around since the 1970s.

MDOT is using the limited Detroit pilot program to test the waters.

“Just because they work somewhere else doesn’t mean they’d work here,” MDOT spokesman Bill Shreck said. “We’re looking to see how it works and how people use them, and if they’d be an effective tool.”

On Michigan Avenue, the right lane adjacent to the parking lane in each direction will be reserved during rush hours for buses, car and van pools and passenger vehicles carrying two or more people between downtown and Wyoming. The restriction would be in effect from 6 to 9 a.m. and from 3 to 6 p.m. weekdays.

The offense would be a civil infraction that would put 2 points on a driver’s license and come with a fine, likely in the $120 range.

HOV lanes might be a tough sell in metro Detroit, where folks are accustomed to the one-car, one-person way of life.

Basso acknowledged that drivers might not initially take to the concept, but over time, might see its benefits: reduced pollution and congestion and less wear and tear on roads.

One of the major goals is to encourage drivers to consider transit or sharing rides so they, too, can take advantage of the HOV lanes, ultimately pulling more traffic off the roads.

Initially, drivers “might be a bit resentful at others who utilize the lanes while the single-occupant vehicle is stuck in traffic,” Basso said. “I think the residual benefits are many, and often unstated.”

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