Making Improvements to I-580
In the past two weeks I’ve attended several meetings where I-580 was the focal point of discussion. The Alameda County Congestion Management Agency (CMA), the CMA I-580 Express Lane Policy Committee, LAVTA, and the Tri-Valley Transportation Council’s Strategic Expenditure Sub-Committee all devoted significant time on discussing ways to improve the troubled 14 mile stretch of I-580 from San Ramon Road in Dublin to Greenville Road in Livermore.Some key components are the creation of more auxiliary lanes between off-ramps, the development of HOV lanes both Eastbound and Westbound, the LAVTA BRT system, and the West Dublin/Pleasanton BART station. However, the other key component is the development of the Bay Area’s first ever High Occupancy Toll (HOT) system.Similar to successful systems in Southern California and other congested cities across the county, the HOT lanes will give the commuters the option to buy into an express lane. The toll lanes will give commuters willing to pay the toll the opportunity to travel faster than the rest of the commuters. At the same time, as people leave other lanes to enter the express lane, it is believed that the regular lanes will also travel much quicker.Tolls have not been determined yet but will likely change with the volume of traffic. In other words, during high volume commute times it will be more expensive to enter the express lanes, but when there is less traffic the cost to enter the HOT lanes will be minimal.Commuters will get Fast Track transponders similar to what are used on the Bay Area’s bridges. There will likely be only 3-4 areas to enter the HOT lanes on both the East and West bound sides of I-580 in order to allow for a smooth flow of traffic. It’s important to note that some of the lanes currently opening as HOV lanes will eventually be HOT but even as express lanes car pools will continue to travel free of charge.
