HOT lanes to provide faster commute

Opened in February, the HOT lanes on I-45 Gulf Freeway are the first completed among 83 miles of lanes throughout the Houston area, including others on Hwy. 59 north and south, I-45 north as well as Hwy. 290, where construction has begun.

To enter HOT lanes, drivers go through the regular HOV entrances. There will be verification lanes to declare whether the driver has passengers or not. Then, they can either go into the "HOV only" or the "all others" pathway. The only significant change that commuters will notice are the verification checkpoints, Mendoza said.

Drivers traveling alone can access the lanes for a toll that may change based on the time of day and congestion level. The price is yet to be determined, but may be similar to the Gulf Freeway's tolls that range from $1 to $4.50 depending on the times of the day. Tolls will be posted before the entrance ramps.

To ease congestion, the lanes will only be open during certain times of the day. On the Gulf Freeway, the lanes are used by high occupancy vehicles on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. inbound and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. outbound. Similar times may be enforced on Hwy. 290, Mendoza said.

"In the Gulf corridor, the HOT lanes are closed to solo drivers during the peak rush hours," Mendoza said. "There is a lot of heavy usage of HOV lanes during those times. If we open it up to solo drivers during those periods then we might not maintain lanes at 50 miles per hour."

Drivers must buy a toll tag or use their existing tags, such as an EZ tag or a METRO Toll Tag, which are available at METRO's RideStore at 1001 Travis or at www.ridemetro.org.