|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Solo drivers who frequently travel on U.S. Highway 101 in Palo Alto and Mountain View could soon find relief — for a price — from traffic congestion under a plan to transition carpool lanes into express lanes that was recently awarded $47.5 million from the state, according to the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority.
The project will convert existing carpool lanes to double as express lanes, which solo drivers can pay to use, from the Highway 101/state Highway 85 interchange in Mountain View to near the San Mateo County line in Palo Alto.
The VTA was notified on Aug. 16 that state funding was approved for the Mountain View and Palo Alto express lane project and two other improvement projects in Santa Clara County.
Funding for the project came from state Senate Bill 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act, which increased the gas tax to repair roads and improve public transit, as well as create state programs aimed to improve local roads, provide congestion relief and improve trade corridors, according to the VTA.
The express lane program was spurred by high growth estimates in Santa Clara County, where the population is expected to increase by 38 percent and jobs could rise to 62 percent — equivalent to 555,000 new residents and 445,000 new jobs — between 2010 and 2040, according to the VTA. Express lanes will presumably alleviate some traffic woes in the coming years.
The express lane project will likely begin construction in early 2019 and be completed in summer 2021, according to the VTA. Crews will install express lane signs, electronic toll readers, a video enforcement system, lighting and communication and electrical services for the tolling system. The project will also add California Highway Patrol enforcement areas, restripe existing lanes and reconstruct concrete barriers and metal guard railings.
Upon completion, VTA will operate, manage and maintain the new express lanes.
Correction: VTA updated the amount of project’s award from $33 million, as initially reported in this story, to $47.5 million.
Correction: VTA updated the amount of project’s award from $33 million, as initially reported in this story, to $47.5 million.
Correction: VTA updated the amount of project’s award from $33 million, as initially reported in this story, to $47.5 million.
Prosecutors allege Mountain View massage parlors were part of regional brothel networkMarch 31, 2026 3:10 pm
Mountain View mayor talks major tech leases, aid for small businesses in annual speechMarch 31, 2026 12:40 pm
I’d love to know if CalTrans has ever analyzed the success of these Toll Express Lanes in any measure other than revenue collected. Do they actually alleviate traffic? Because during rush hour, it doesn’t seem like the existing HOV lanes have much excess capacity. So many HOV violators and enforcement seems very lax.
Shannon, at the end of 2018 a TON of electric (any pre-2017) and natural gas cars will drop off the HOV list. That might reduce to congestion a bit.
I’d be interested to see the data on carpool cheats in the express lanes in other locations such as 237 or 880. My informal count driving home on 101 every day is about 25-35% cheats. Express lanes limit the access and record who goes in/out, so I’m hoping the cheating rate is lower. On the other hand, cheats do clear out the non-carpool lanes for the rest of us, so maybe I should be careful what I wish for.
But – whatever the consequences – it will not relieve congestion IT it is just $$$ rather than ‘more passengers’ that this toll lane encourages. Like: the More Uber+Lyft / the more downtown cars traffic.
Freaking SCAM of Poop! These lanes do ZERO for traffic, they are simply a luxury tax at the cost of the public. They are completely unconstitutional and should never go in, the roads WILL not get better. Wasn’t that the gas tax already shoved down our throats with ZERO ability to fight it? They road are no better, CA brags about having their cofffers full, we get hit with MORE TAX and WORSE roads and traffic, this is total BULL. Freaking SCAM. VTA is the most incompetent department ever, they couldn’t find their way out of paper bag. Why not shut down an entire lane on 101 while we are at it for a bus only lane so we can watch their empty buses drive along it all day long. This is BULL! Some politician is getting paid that’s for sure.
The only way to alleviate traffic is to build double decker highways. You know, 2 stories high, like apartment complexes. Top traffic would flow in one direction and the bottom in the other.
@Shannon, didn’t you read he article? No study needed it says right there
‘Express lanes will presumably alleviate some traffic woes in the coming years’
That’s real science right there!
What a freaking joke. VTA SUCKS
Shannon, yes. https://mtc.ca.gov/sites/default/files/Q1_2018_BAIFA_Express_Lanes_Quarterly_Report_0.pdf You’ll have to scroll all the way to the end. Starting on page 32 is “Performance Highlights” which includes comments like “Paying customers represented 56% of all users in March”.
That said, I’m personally against them for multiple reasons, and believe that they are a net negative in the long run.
Biggest on my list is having housing so far away from work places does not scale. If everything in the bay area doubled; twice as many jobs, twice as many houses (i.e. the ratio of residents and work stays the same), we’ll end up solid houses from Salinas to Santa Rosa. We need to fix the ratio of jobs to housing in all bay area cities, starting with our own. Either you have to drive out businesses or build more housing.
The gas tax will be repealed in November and hopefully this will end funding for this insanity. Even though it’s tough to vote for something proposed by a right-wing Trump Republican, in this case repealing the gas tax is the right thing to do.
Reasons to Vote Yes (Repeal)
● Not passed by voters.
● Highly regressive.
● Doesn’t address the growing number of electric cars and plug-in hybrids.
● Too hard on trucking industry.
● Wrong way to fund road construction and maintenance; we should be using a mileage based Vehicle License Fee instead of a per gallon fuel tax to be fair.
Express/Toll lanes are a much better idea than Carpool/HOV lanes. They are more efficient at maximizing economic utility.
Did you take your comment right out of your VTA employee handbook, Larry?
Hopefully, the public has wised up and will refuse to give VTA another dime. VTA’s idiotic plan to take two lanes on El Camino for their empty busses was enough to prove how inefficient the VTA is – and expose their failed plan to empire build. Now this is their latest example of incompetence, but the public won’t be scammed again.
Another way to separate the haves and the have-nots.
I don’t think the hov is even that much faster anymore.
Are these new express lanes going to require carpoolers to get one of the adjustable FasTrak transponders, like the new express lanes on 680 north of 580?
The VTA – like most bureacracies – is in business to increase its own power and income. Tranportation is just a sideline. Toll lanes produce tolls. Toll bridges produce tolls. Toll roads will next produce more tolls. Some toll roads in other states are operated by corporations. Next roads will be sold to China and Russia and Saudi Arabia to offset the national debt. All that smoke in the air should remind us how important air can be. Get ready for the air tax.