Posted on 10/14/2014 7:45:48 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A new study finds the shutdown of the 405 Freeway to add a carpool lane hasn’t relieved traffic congestion during rush hour.
KNX 1070’s Jim Thornton and Diane Thompson spoke with Jim Bak of traffic service provider INRIX, whose analysts found “relatively no change” in travel speeds and times when comparing data between the middle two weeks of September in 2013 and 2014 on the northbound 405 between the 10 and the 101 freeways.
The average trip through that stretch of the 405 during rush hour is about 35 minutes,” he said.
Bak insisted there is “no silver bullet” to solving the rush-hour gridlock in Los Angeles, noting there are challenges with traffic “across the entire system.”
But he also noted there were some improvements.
“What we do see is it helps delay the on-set of rush hour and it helps bring rush hour to a close a little faster because you’re moving some volumes of vehicles that would be in the regular lanes into the HOV lanes,” Bak said.
“Typically in the analysis, we were seeing before the HOV travel times in the 7 to 8 p.m. hour that were in the 28-minute range,” he added.
Those travel times have since reduced to between 22 and 25 minutes during the same time period, according to the study, which also looked at the cost drivers are paying while stuck in their vehicles.
“Los Angeles drivers last year wasted about 65 hours in traffic,” Bak said. “For the average household, that translates into $5,000 in added cost every year, either in your wasted time or the amount of fuel you waste.”
The study also looked into costs that get passed on to consumers.
“Businesses – it costs them more to bring products to market because they’ve got to pay drivers overtime costs to get deliveries done on time and they have to use more gas to do that as well,” he said.
Look LA traffic is AWFUL.
It is terrible, and nothing will improve it.
That is just the way it is.
The 405 got a 404 on review.
Utility Theory of Work — some laws just won’t be ignored!
In my experience, people use the carpool lane and still go the same speed. The problem is and will always be people and their driving habits.
4 or 5 miles per hour.
Speaking of vehicles in the HOV lane on the 405, you might want to see this : http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ImdOewVhoS4
It cost $1.1 billion for that carpool lane. Since it doesn’t work, I think they should just take it off.
Carpool lanes make traffic worst. People have died because of them.
The only purpose of carpool lanes is to allow politicians easy access to the highway funds for graft and various payoffs.
Biggest problem with traffic is incompetent drivers who are afraid to be on the road and drive under the speed limit. My dad used to warn me not to drive behind old men in hats, then he got mad when I told him he had become that old man in a hat.
I regularily take my daughter to UCLA med center, a few miles off the 405 & Wilshire, about 113 miles from home. It’s always a crawl on the 405 from about Van Nuys on. In rush hour it can take over an hour to go the last 15 miles and it doesn’t get better once I get off on Wilshire. I truly hate that place.
Sure there is. The Feds figure Ebola will clear the "free"ways.
The carpool lane never was about relieving traffic.
Unless you could say that it actually made traffic worst for non-carpoolers because it took away one of their lanes.
How does a car containing a mom and a bunch of kids get any additional vehicles off the road, anyway? Answer: It doesn’t. Yet it can travel in the carpool lane.
On this particular stretch of freeway, the problem is not enough road.
#9 BINGO! You got it!!
Studies have consistently shown that carpool (HOV) lanes don't improve traffic flow. In fact, every study done, has shown that they actually impede the flow of traffic.
But it's one of those 'article of faith' things for liberals, so you can expect them to build even more of them in coming years.
There’s a saying among traffic planners that curing congestion by adding capacity is like curing obesity by loosening your belt.
I say: put a double deck on every freeway.
I travel 43 miles to a relatives place and have to take the 101 to the 405. First off is the transition to the 405 which squeezes several lanes into 2 then has you go on a banked curve to the left then right then uphill. The right lane disappears further uphill forcing traffic to move over (crash bang). Coming back you are going downhill at 70+ with semis all around you. You must slow way down to 35 as you turn a sharp right curve then a sharp left curve to get back onto the 101.
Once on they have 1 lane for you as they have barriers up to protect you from the mad drivers in the other lanes coming at you at 70+ on a curve for several hundred feet before you can merge into other lanes!
Then there are the drivers who drive either too slow or way too fast and switch lanes with no warning or just merge expecting you to get out of the way.
The carpool lane is hardly in use compared to the rest of the lanes. Someone mentioned Wilshire blvd. I travel past that stretch and for about 2+ miles it is like you are on a washboard. So much for that $1 billion making the road better.
Oh and that 43 mile trip? It takes anywhere from 1 hour to 2.5 hours. This past Sunday it was 1 hour 35 minutes.
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