Toll lanes bring more delays for drivers who don’t pay

Last year, carpool lanes on a portion of the 110 Freeway were converted to toll lanes. Preliminary data show average travel speeds have increased in the lanes formerly reserved for carpoolers, but traffic has slowed on the rest of the freeway.

So for solo drivers paying up to $15.40 per trip, the new toll lanes are providing a faster commute. More than 135,000 motorists have purchased FasTrak transponders since the toll lanes opened. Officials have collected more than $3 million in tolls along an 11-mile stretch of the Harbor Freeway, south of downtown.

Operating and maintaining the lanes cost $2.9 million in the first three months. Any profits from the operation will be reinvested in transportation improvements along the Harbor Freeway corridor, officials said.

Traffic on the 110 toll lanes flowed at least 45 mph during peak hours, and 10 mph faster in the morning northbound rush than before the project, according to data covering the period from December to February. But non-toll lanes in the most congested segment — near Gage Avenue — slowed by more than 8 mph, to 29.6 mph, during the morning peak period.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials say that’s because solo drivers are no longer illegally using the carpool lane, and other drivers are still deciding whether to buy a transponder. Some delays could be caused by drivers braking to read toll signs, they said.

About 7% of drivers who entered the toll lane during the study period did so incorrectly. After a brief grace period, the California Highway Patrol issued 412 verbal warnings and 307 tickets.

Traffic in the toll lane initially decreased by about 10,000 trips a day or about 20%. Separate data from the California Department of Transportation, which is partnering with Metro on the project, showed that traffic volume declined by half in some segments of the toll lanes. But those numbers are gradually recovering, according to Metro’s data.

Many of those drivers presumably moved into free lanes, a Metro spokesman said, contributing to the traffic slowdown there.

Kathleen McCune, Metro’s toll lane director, stressed that the data are preliminary and drivers are still adjusting to the new system.

Some commuters may have avoided the freeway all together, said Clifford Winston, a government performance analyst at the Brookings Institute. Until — and unless — more drivers buy transponders, he said, extra traffic will be crowded into the no-cost lanes.

“Growing pains. It’s not surprised,” said Winston, noting that similar projects in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere saw the same pattern during the early months.

USC engineering professor James E. Moore II said that if more drivers don’t start using the toll lanes, the fee may have to be reduced.

“I don’t sweat much that the lanes are being underutilized at first,” he said. “Prices can always be changed.”

In all, Los Angeles County has 453 miles of carpool lanes, and 53 more miles are under construction, according to Caltrans. If the current experiment succeeds, every carpool lane in the county could add tolls within 20 years, predicted Robert Poole, a toll lane advocate and policy director at Reason Foundation, a public policy think tank.

“The truth of the matter is, there aren’t that many options left” to increase freeway capacity, Poole said.

A second phase of testing has begun on the 10 Freeway, where a 14-mile toll lane from downtown to the 605 Freeway near El Monte opened in February. Officials also have held a public hearing on proposed toll lanes for the 5 Freeway near Santa Clarita.

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laura.nelson@latimes.com