Advisory group plans toll lanes for Interstate 405
BELLEVUE, Wash. - A state Transportation Department advisory group is meeting in Bellevue to consider express lane tolling on Interstate 405.
A spokeswoman for the project, Amy Danberg, says the tolling would likely have variable rates, like the toll lanes already in use on Highway 167 in south King County.
She says another option under consideration would increase the required number of people in a carpool vehicle from two to three.
The 40-mile Eastside Corridor of Highway 167 and Interstate 405 is the north-south freeway option to Interstate 5 through the Seattle area.
The Transportation Department has been working for more than a decade on ways to reduce congestion. Express toll lanes between Bellevue and Lynnwood are under construction and will open in 2015.
The transportation advisory group, made up of 30 members, also will advise the state Department of Transportation and Legislature on carpool exemptions, hours of operation, project timing, and funding for express toll lanes along the full 40-mile corridor. A plan will be delivered to the governor and Legislature by June 2013.
Express toll lanes give solo drivers the option to use carpool lanes by paying an electronic toll. Similar to Highway 167, the express toll lanes on I-405 will operate as an expressway within a freeway while allowing toll-free trips for transit and vanpools.
The advisory group will have three more meetings in the coming weeks to gather input on the plan.
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More information: www.wsdot.wa.gov/tolling/eastsidecorridor
A spokeswoman for the project, Amy Danberg, says the tolling would likely have variable rates, like the toll lanes already in use on Highway 167 in south King County.
She says another option under consideration would increase the required number of people in a carpool vehicle from two to three.
The 40-mile Eastside Corridor of Highway 167 and Interstate 405 is the north-south freeway option to Interstate 5 through the Seattle area.
The Transportation Department has been working for more than a decade on ways to reduce congestion. Express toll lanes between Bellevue and Lynnwood are under construction and will open in 2015.
The transportation advisory group, made up of 30 members, also will advise the state Department of Transportation and Legislature on carpool exemptions, hours of operation, project timing, and funding for express toll lanes along the full 40-mile corridor. A plan will be delivered to the governor and Legislature by June 2013.
Express toll lanes give solo drivers the option to use carpool lanes by paying an electronic toll. Similar to Highway 167, the express toll lanes on I-405 will operate as an expressway within a freeway while allowing toll-free trips for transit and vanpools.
The advisory group will have three more meetings in the coming weeks to gather input on the plan.
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More information: www.wsdot.wa.gov/tolling/eastsidecorridor
Fine, toll it. But refund every taxpayer that paid to build that road first.
Ah yes...
More income that will never see the light of day for the payee.
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Good job voters.
My other idea is that the 405 HOV lane from i-90 northward be converted into a trucks and buses only lane like they did with I-5 in Portland. Trucks take up a lot of pavement space on that section of 405 trying to get to and from i-90 to I-5 north. Get them out of the main traffic.
Ah yes, the wonderful taxpayers of Washington State are a politician's bottomless wallet.
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Nobody in civics class told me that when a government has a budget, that means how much of a taxpayer's money can be shaken out of them when hung upside down with their hands tied.
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So does 99% mean how many of us are getting taken advantage of by Uncle Sam or 1% mean the amount of take home income I'll have soon?
I thought we had a state law where the state could not put tolls on roads that are paid for? That means any tolls on any of the HOV lanes is illegal.
Doesn't it feel good to pay for sometning and then pay again and pay again and pay..........
Another punish the middle class tax disguised as a toll! I remember folks demonizing people like myself calling us fear mongers because we knew that once we implemented 520 tolls the income takers in Olympia/Seattle would be eyeing new tolls for 405 and all the other highways around here, yet here we are with an advisory group planning tolls. Who gets hurt most by tolls? Lower and Middle class citizens as higher paying jobs are located in higher value housing markets which are unaffordable. Is this the poverty trickledown economics Olympia promised?
I wish they wouldn't pussy foot around it and just toll the whole Seattle area freeway system like they really want to do. They do this in other parts of the country ( SF bay area for example) so fine. Keep the toll low like $1 and make everybody pay.
 @Ankle Biter How many times do we need to be taxed for the same stretch of roadway?Â
 @javajoe The problem with roads like 405 is you don't just pay for them once. They have to be maintained and that costs money. Our freeways are deplorable compared to Germany's. I'll be happy to pay a toll if they can fix the damn things up to even half of Germany's standards.
Actually a lot of these problems came about years ago. The state could have done a lot better in the planning department. They actually had a group up from California years ago and paid them to do a study in how this area could be developed without creating the same problems as those in Los Angeles. Unfortunately as the money flowed and the unbridled growth continued the problems just kept getting worse until we now have the end result of poor planning everywhere you turn.
The HOT lanes in 167 don't even make enough revenue to pay for their operation. Last I heard they were thinking about abandoning the idea not expanding it.
This is just drek. Drek Drek...... No more tolls. The people who bring about these ideas are the ones who live in Olympia and Tacoma who never use 405..... I"m already sick and tired of paying for those who have 4 kids and no job....
This damn state will come up with scheme-after-scheme, in order to suck off us drivers/taxpayers. We've already paid for I-405 and it's the WSDOT who can't manage their money enough to even use our gas tax efficiently enough to properly maintain it.
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I'm really sick of of these tactics. Too bad we don't actually vote these bozos in to office.
You asked for it by voting for them and now you have it .....Cheers to all the new taxes you will have and enjoy .....The lesson is Open the door .00000000001 inch and it will be opened a mile and taxed.
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F#@$ T@#$!
Another reason for me to avoid I-405 anyway. It's already chock-full of idiots and stupid drivers who don't know how to merge, tailgate, and drive 20+ mph over the speed limit already. If you're gonna toll it, toll the idiots in the 3-series BMWs, Audi A4s, Volkswagen Jettas, oversized SUVs, and anything with a spoiler on the back, especially those cars with spoilers that double as wings on small aircraft.
@Donkey Kong from the way you describe the traffic situation you are probably the people that does the following that causes traffic and road rage: 1. Hogging left lane preventing people going 20+ over speed limit to pass you, thus they have to tail gate you. 2. On the right lane cruising along at 60mph, and won't even let of your gas alittle bit making other cars merge easily into the freeway. Not all the ramp in this area are designed in away where the traffic already on the freeway should YIELD at the merging cars. although not by law, but it's a courtious to others on the road. self entitled people like you IS the reason we have horrible traffic in this area.
@Donkey Kong You seem to share the same sentiment as the politicians. Weed out a few to pay for everyone else. The people who drive the above mentioned vehicles pay taxes too and in some cases more than others. They have a right to drive what they want as long as they can afford it and their taxes also help pay for the roads.
 @Donkey Kong then stop driving so slow in the left the lane. higher speeds will yield less congestion.
What would happen if we made ALL lanes of traffic HOV lanes that required 3 or more people in a vehicle? i.e. no more single occupant vehicles allowed on the roads.
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What do you think would happen?
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I have a theory.
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First, the demand for mass transit and public (and private) carpool transportation would skyrocket. This would create a TON of jobs (I'm aware we'd be cutting jobs as well, I'll get to that in a moment).
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It would also encourage voters to approve mass transit, since they'd be relying on it. Â
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It would reduce the amount of vehicles on the road, I'm guessing by at least 50%. Â
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No more gridlock, at least nothing even close to what we have now. Â
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Less air pollution thanks to less vehicles on the road.
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It would reduce the amount of money needed to expand and repair our infrastructure.
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It could  reduce the need for a bloated DOT (i.e. reduce the size of government which is way over sized right now, in fact near 30% of voters vote FOR government and it's rapidly increasing, what happens when that reaches 51%? But that's a topic for another discussion)
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What are the drawbacks?
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A lot of auto companies would have to shutdown or reorganize to handle the demand for higher occupancy vehicles (instead of 4-door sedans, etc).
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It might take a few minutes longer to get to your destination. Â Or would it? Â With no more traffic jams we'd see faster travel times on average.
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 @Landshark Wrong, wrong and wrong.
 @Landshark Ever see a UPS truck with two drivers? Ever see a utility truck, a taxi with no fares, a police car, a plumber or an electrician with extra riders? Your plan is ludicrous from the outset.
Are you going to give up your seat on the bus so I will have room to park my rolling tool chest and three tool bags, plus the boxes of parts I have to carry?
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I didn't think so.
 @Glassman  @Landshark The buses are too crowded as it is--& service is being cut back as demand for transit is increasing.  Good luck with Landshark's crazy idea......
@Landshark It would lead to total rebellion and a wide spread demand for our money back. However, Mayor McSchwinn and his supporters would be tickled pink and demand one lane for bicycles only. Remember that those HOV lanes that we ALL paid for are supposed to reduce the number of vehicles so why don't we require HOV lanes to be two or more "drivers" instead of soccer moms taking the kids somewhere? And, now that I think about it, we ALL didn't pay for them. Maybe it's time to instill use rules based upon years paying into the system? I have over fifty and was driving before the locust swept in creating the problems.
 @Seattleisaslew  @Landshark Sorry, I guess I don't follow your side of the argument. Â
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We all pay for the roads now just like we'd all pay for the roads in my example above. Â And what does the Mayor of King Country's personal feelings have to do with any of this?
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@Landshark @Seattleisaslew I think what he means is that there are a lot of people driving out there that weren't old enough to drive when a lot of these roads were built. A lot of the infrastructure of this country was built long before many of these people were born and the generations prior to that paid for the original roads.
@Landshark He's the mayor of Seattle but maybe you need to research who is on the advisory board. Not one person who represents me or whom I was given the option of voting for or against. And yes King County is represented. While you are at it take a look at the "Expert Review Panel" and you'll see not one person from this state. Homework first. Then we'll deal with your utopian dream where a snap of the fingers causes all of the sheep to leave their cars at home.
 @Landshark Good luck enforcing that.
 @Bornhere Just out of curiosity, is your response based on what you've experienced with current road law enforcement?  I.E. is it that you don't have faith in current road laws being enforced so you don't believe new ones would?  If so, would that indicate the issue also stands that stricter enforcement of today's road laws would help reduce traffic problems?
@Landshark @JK15 @Bornhere "With demand comes supply." Which would seem to justify more regular lanes right?
 @JK15  @Bornhere No, you are missing the point.  With demand comes supply.  If there was a need for those not in downtown areas to be picked up, then someone would create the company/business that does just that. Â
 @Landshark  @Bornhere And what do you propose the people who live out in the sticks do? Since they don't have anyone to carpool with, they are not allowed to use the roads?
Personally, I think it's time to admit that carpool lanes are a failure and have done very little if anything to get people to carpool.Â
 @lakeview Only failure that it's not is to move the state patrol, ambulances, tow trucks down the lanes quicker
 @lakeview Have you not read the news that carpooling and transit use has been adopted to the point that gas tax revenues have gone down?
 @benevolent misanthrope  @lakeview Please provide the source of that information.
 @lakeview The government never admits failure. Hell they still think the Viet Nam and Korea wars were a success.lol
Yeah, and how long did it take for them to make money off the toll lanes on 167? They actually lost money on that for quite a while before they actually made any! You know what? You may have to actually work on widening that freeway! Oh wait! This just came after that story on people likely to avoid the toll on the tunnel, much like 520. Oh, it's not about improvements. It's about paying for their other overbudgeted projects!
405 HOV Lanes are already a NIGHTMARE in rush hour so would be a waste of $$$ for single drivers anyway. Â Many of nights while riding in the HOV, the "fast" lane is a little faster anyway. Â We have idiots running this operation and they obviously don't commute.Â
 @word Pretty easy to remedy these kinds of problems. Move closer to work. Just leave the traffic problems alone. If people don't like them they will find a way to deal with it.
 @Blindman You're funding that move, right?
This tolling is not for paying for future projects, it is to pay for the costly projects like the 99 tunnel and the 520 replacement. Since the state has put both the tunnel and 520 in motion without the proper funding they need to make incremental payments for the projects to continue or we will have a tunnel half built and sinking pontoons. The citizens have been lied to every step of the way and now the bills are going to come due and the politicians are trying to cover for the lies they made by making more lies now. I say let the state declare bankruptcy and start from scratch all over again. It is amazing what I have used and reused many times because I can not afford to buy new stuff, so should our government.Â
why not just charge everyone say $2,000 a year to register their car or truck and raise more taxes on gasoline say maybe $15 per gallon that should be enough to give our state workers six digit salaries...
 @tiger62 I hope Tim Eyman didn't read your idea there.
 @tiger62 ...until there wasn't enough. The more you give, the more they spend.
Express toll lanes give solo drivers the option to use carpool lanes by paying an electronic toll.
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Isn't a "HOV lane" suppose to be used by vehicles with 2 or more occupants?? Â so I guess if you pay a fee then that makes it ok, but if you don't then they'll give you BIG TICKET for driving in the HOV lane. EXTORSION plain and simple............ Pay a fee its ok, dont and get a ticket. I'm against it all the way!!Â
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 @Seahawker They don't ticket you. Just ask the 70% who drive solo in the HOV lane on 520 every day. They only ticket during the summer and everyone knows where the State Patrol park so they jump in and out of traffic to avoid ticketing.
 @Seahawker That's why the ones on SR167 are referred to as "The Lexus Lanes."
Just another benefit for the rich.
Let me guess, before they decide: Â Lets have a two year study on the environmental impact of implementing this system. Â The study should only cost about $50,000,000. Â