SAN ANTONIO – The Texas Transportation Commission on Thursday approved the addition of high-occupancy vehicles lanes on U.S. Highway 281 from Loop 1604 to the Bexar/Comal County line and on Interstate 10 from La Cantera Parkway to FM 3351/Ralph Fair Road.
HOV lanes are reserved for vehicles with a driver and one or more passengers. Some areas require two or more people in a vehicle traveling in HOV lanes during peak traffic times, such as morning and evening rush hours on week days. Lanes are normally open to all traffic at other times.
"That'll probably work out great for people who work near the same place, have the same job, coming back and forth from school," Alec Blount, a driver, said.
The lanes were approved as part of the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization's plans to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution, Texas Transportation Commission officials said. The vote is a welcome change by some as previous expansion plans included toll lanes.
Local, state and federal funds will pay for both projects totaling nearly $300 million, according to a Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman.
TxDOT conducted studies to determine the effectiveness of the proposed HOV lanes. Officials reported that those studies concluded the lanes were a good idea because they will manage demand of the roadway, provide measurable air quality benefits and increase the efficiency of the existing transportation system.
The order authorizing the building of HOV lanes also required the TxDOT executive director to work with VIA Metropolitan Transit on the operation and maintenance of the HOV lanes.
VIA bus riders are expected to be among the most frequent HOV lane users.
Construction on both the projects is set to begin next year. While the U.S. 281 project will be broken into two phases, all of the HOV lanes are expected to be up and running by 2022.
You can find out more about the HOV projects by reading the PDF file below: