VTA Express Lanes Audio Podcast Script

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

Today Santa Clara Valley is a vibrant, bustling high tech and business hub and home to nearly 2 million people. 

Considering innovative power house and one of the top research development centers in the world, the Santa Clara Valley continues to thrive in the growth, but with that growth comes increased demands on the area’s transportation infrastructure.  With an estimated 500,000 new residents expected in the next 25 years, experts are looking to research and technology to answer the growing demand for less congestion.

Leading that effort is the Valley Transportation Authority, also known as VTA, the agency that oversees the county’s public transit and highway systems. 

Hans Larsen, City of San Jose's deputy director of transportation, describes this growth:

Hans Larsen
The City of San Jose and VTA both foresee the Santa Clara Valley, Silicon Valley area, is going to continue to grow as it has in the past. The projections for growth over the next 20-30 years, estimate there will be 30% more jobs and housing within this area. And so it’s important for us to develop a transportation system that supports that growth, and one of the things we do is try to squeeze as much efficiency and capacity out of the existing facilities that we have.

Narrator
At the time when State Government funding cannot support the demand for new roads, VTA has exploring an innovative approach to provide motors the fast, safe and reliable commutes by creating an Express Lanes network which will convert existing high occupancy vehicle, or carpool lanes on the SR 85 and the U.S. 101 to 60 miles of new high occupancy toll or HOT lanes. The new express lanes system will provide solo commuters for the first time the option of choosing to pay to access nearly 60 miles of free flowing roadway.
Bob Poole of the Reason Foundation, an expert on express lanes who coined the phrase “HOT Lanes” explains:

Bob Poole
HOV lanes can be transformed into a more effective component of the urban transportation system by turning them into premium lanes that would serve as high-speed guide ways for express buses, while providing a faster and more reliable travel option to individual motorists traveling in personal automobiles. Buses and vanpools would use the premium lanes free of charge, while other motorists would pay a variable toll.

Steve Heminger, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), touches on how the public will directly benefit from the Express Lanes:

Steve Heminger
The way we conventionally build new highway capacity, new carpool lanes, is we raise people’s taxes and fund the system. What we are talking about here is basically expanding the carpool system with voluntary contributions. People will pay these tolls if they want to; if they don’t want to they will keep travelling in the regular lanes. We also believe there will be enough revenue in the Bay Area because we think this concept will be very popular, that we will be able to use some of the revenue to improve public transit alternatives in the same corridors where the tolls are collected.

Narrator
Carpools with two or more occupants, motorcycles, transit buses and eligible clean air vehicles will continue to use the lanes free of charge.   At the same time, Express Lanes will help raise revenue for even more improvements in these corridors. 

Ken Yeager, Santa Clara County Supervisor, describes how the revenue from the tolls will be allocated:

Ken Yeager
One of the things that excites me about all the possibilities with HOT lanes is that it does provide additional revenues that we can use without sort of adding another tax to our general population down here to improve all of the transportation systems that we have. So with these additional revenues, we can then improve the whole sort of corridor, if you will, of where the HOT lanes are maintained.

Narrator
How do the Express Lanes work?  Here’s what you can expect.

As you travel down SR 85, every three miles or so, you’ll see a clearly marked Express Lanes access point.  These areas are where eligible motorists can enter and exit the lanes. Electronic signs will let motorists know an access point is coming up and also the amount of the toll.  In addition, lane markings will show you exactly where to go.  

John Ristow, Chief Congestion Management Agency Officer with VTA, explains:

John Ristow
Tolls for solo drivers will be collected using the FasTrak transponder that’s currently used by all motorists crossing the Bay Area Bridges. So they’ll just put this in their windshield and it will be electronically collected at electronic gantries as they pass underneath their toll will be collected and they’ll be no slowing down and they’ll keep travelling at speed.

Narrator
The lanes will operate 24/7 and tolls are set to regulate the number of solo Fast Track vehicles entering the lanes and to ensure traffic in the express lanes continues to flow reliably at about 55 mile/hr. Tolls for most solo drivers will most likely range between 50 cents to $ 8 depending on the distance travel, the time of day and the level of congestion in the express lanes is called “Dynamic or Congestion Pricing”. Tolls go up is the congestion in express lanes increases and lower when the traffic volume decreases. Once you are in the lane the display toll amount you see when you entered is one that they will charge to your account. For drivers whio have Fast Track but have to carpool on occasions, the simple solution is to temporarily remove the transponder to avoid the toll. Similar projects in San Diego and Orange County have been have been operating successfully for more than a decade and have proven to be popular with commuters.

Pat Dando, President  & CEO of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, believes the Express Lanes will contribute to a higher quality of life:

Pat Dando
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.

Narrator
Colleen Windsor, the Director of Communications of the San Diego Association of Governments, has seen firsthand how the Express Lanes have been a benefit to San Diego commuters.

Colleen Windsor
The I-15 Express Lanes have been an incredible asset to our commuters from the north county to the down downtown area. The expresslanes have provided choices to commuters were not only Fast Track users if want to drive alone to carpoolers  and vanpoolers and our express buses it has save people time, it has save people stress, has been an incredible asset

Narrator
Whether you are a business person who needs to deliver something just in time, or you’re a parent trying to pick up your child in daycare or get to their soccer game, the Express Lane network gives you the option to buy into the lanes so that you have predictable travel time through the area.

The first corridor in the Santa Clara Valley to feature Express Lanes will be a 24 mile stretch of State Route 85 between Morgan Hill and the San Mateo County line.  This project is scheduled for completion in 2012.

Most local commuters are very excited about the idea including Julie, who regularly commutes to Palo Alto:

Julie from Palo Alto
I would buy one of those passes in a heartbeat, because being somewhere on time, it’s my business. I have to be where I have to be when the client expects me to be there. So if I can avoid being in the traffic, travelling in the carpool lane is absolutely what I would want to do if that was available to me. I would do it.

Narrator
Patrick who lives in Morgan Hill also supports the idea:

Patrick from Morgan Hill
I would be interested in being able to use the carpool lane for a fee to expedite my travel. We make appointments and we have to stick to them. And people are counting on me to be there on time, and often times I have to call ahead and tell them I‘m gonna be late for traffic.

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