Express Lanes Better Commute Video Description

The video shows a video of Express Lanes.

Narrator
With a mild climate and miles and miles of orchards, Santa Clara Valley was originally known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight.

Better known today as the Silicon Valley, Santa Clara County is a vibrant, bustling high tech and business hub and home to nearly 2 million people.

Known for its innovation and considered one of the top research and development centers in the world, the Santa Clara Valley continues to thrive and grow. With an estimated 500,000 new residents expected in the next 25 years, commuters need new options.

Commuter 1:It is amazing how bad that traffic can be. Because I am flying over the traffic and in many areas it is flowing just beautifully and you think you’ve got it made and then it comes to a complete standstill.

Commuter 2: After 5:30, say like another couple thousand cars have already beaten you to the punch.

Commuter 3: The economy may be slumping, but the roads certainly don’t say that.

Narrator: With limited land and final resources to add more freeways and to address concerns of high gas prices and environmental impacts, experts are exploring innovative alternatives to providing motorists with fast, safe, and reliable commutes. Leading that effort is the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), the agency that oversees the county’s public transit and highway systems.

John Ristow-Chief CMA Officer, VTA- We have limited area for increasing the capacity on the freeway system. This is a valley that is already urbanized and quickly becoming more urbanized. There is not a lot of room left to be widening of freeways. So what we’ve got is a situation where a lot more people and jobs are going to be created in the future. The current conditions are already congested so the problem is how we deal with that growth from that sort of standpoint.

Narrator
To help ease growing traffic congestion. VTA is planning to convert existing high occupancy vehicle, or carpool lanes on the SR 85 and the U.S. 101 to new high occupancy toll or Express Lanes. The new Express Lanes network will provide solo drivers the option of paying a toll to use the lanes for a less congested commute.

Steve Heminger-Executive Director -MTC: We need to place a great premium on squeezing as much capacity as we can out of the existing highway network. And that’s what we think express lanes do. They allow you to not only move more carpools and van pools and buses through the HOV system, but they also permit single occupant drivers to pay their way onto those lanes so that you can get the maximum through put through the same bit of concrete. So what we want to do is have traffic flowing smoothly. We don’t want people speeding over the speed limit because then they are emitting too much pollution and we don’t want them doing stop and go because then they are also emitting more pollution than the car has to get from point A to point B.

Narrator
By allowing solo drivers to pay a toll to use existing carpool lanes on State Route-85 and U.S. 101, we can offer commuters a reliable, fast alternative, and at the same time generate revenue that will be used to operate and maintain the lanes, pay for highway patrol services and support additional improvements in these corridors.

Steve Heminger: Well we’re very pleased that VTA in Santa Clara County and Silicon Valley is one of the pioneers for this express lane concept.

Hans Larsen-City of San Jose: We have an aging freeway infrastructure, and we don’t have the revenue available through gas tax programs to be able to properly take care of the infrastructure we have or adequately operate it. And so the express lane program provides an additional source of revenue to take care of our freeway system so that they are free of potholes and can be operated in the most efficient way.

Narrator
Curious about the Express Lanes? Here’s what you can expect.

The Express Lanes are easy to use and operate 24/7. The California Highway Patrol enforces the rules visually and electronically.

Transit vehicles, carpoolers, motorcycles and eligible clean air vehicles can use them at no charge.

Solo drivers with a FasTrak® transponder can choose to pay a toll to use them.

Signs alert you to access points and the current toll.

An overhead antenna reads your transponder and the correct toll is automatically deducted from your prepaid account.

Tolls vary based on the level of congestion in the Express Lanes and are adjusted to keep traffic moving.

Similar projects in San Diego and Orange County, and in Minneapolis and Seattle have been have been operating successfully and have proven popular with people from all income levels and all walks of life.

Pat Dando-San Jose Chamber of Commerce Well regardless of where I visit and see express lanes and talk to business leaders and community leaders, I hear nothing but good things especially Southern California. I have family that lives down there, they spend a lot of time going to and from work and if they are lucky enough to be able to use one of the express lanes they get to work quicker, less stress, less frazzled by the time they get to work and then sometimes even more importantly they get home quicker. But I also want to mention as much of a challenge as traffic has been for the business community, and it does affect a business’s bottom line, I think we also have to look at the quality of life. We want to have healthy employees. We want to have healthy employers and in doing that we want people to spend less time on the roadway, more time at productive meetings in their offices or with clients, but we also want people to be able to get home at a reasonable time and have extra hours to spend with their family not stuck on the roadway.

Ken Yeager-Santa Clara County Supervisor: For anybody who absolutely has to get from point A to point B because of a family commitment or with school or with a job that at least they have the option if they want to pay a little bit more to use the Hot Lane if that is something that’s available to them. For me, the reason why I am in support of Hot Lanes is it is going to make improvements to all of the transportation system. So if you don’t want to go on the freeway you know that the streets are going to be improved or there is going to be an additional bus, or there is going to be an additional light rail car or we’re going to bring BART down, so it just gives people more options to get from point A to point B.

Commuter 2: Express lanes have improved my commute quite a bit be it that I have been able to use it at my disposal and not have to be stuck in traffic.

Commuter 4: Another benefit will be that the express lanes will free up congestion in the other lanes.

Commuter 3: If the lane is going to be paying for VTA improvements like more light rail or trains or that kind of stuff, then I am more for it.

Commuter 1: I have to be where I have to be when the client expects me to be there. So I can avoid being in the traffic traveling in the carpool lane is absolutely what I would want to do if that was available to me I would do it.

Narrator
The Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley, is recognized the world over for inventing and adopting revolutionary new ideas. With the introduction of the Express Lanes, we have the opportunity to apply our legendary technological know-how to address, and overcome, the challenge of traffic congestion in our community.