Freeway toll lanes to allow three-people carpools to drive for free?

A freeway toll lane plan for the 10 and 210 might allow three-person carpools to drive for free... or it might not. Federal and local transportation officials don't seem to be on the same page.

I had an interesting conversation with an undersecretary in the federal Department of Transportation on Friday.... they contacted me to answer questions about and sell the freeway toll lane project that would turn carpool lanes on the 10 and 210 freeways into toll lanes. The MTA (our local agency) is clamoring for the plan because it comes with $213 million in federal money.

The official,Tyler Duvall, told me that under the plan, carpools with three people or more would be allowed to drive for free. That took me by surprise, because I have attended the MTA dog and pony show on the plan, and they very clearly refused to make any definitive statements on who might be able to use the lanes and at what cost.

I asked Duvall again, very carefully, if there was 100 percent certainty that three-person carpools would be permitted, and he said yes.

However, he also said that this was guaranteed in a written and signed contract (read it here) between MTA and the Feds. His office emailed me the contract, and I read through it. Nothing about three-person carpools in there.

I asked for more clarification and he said that although it was not in the contract, MTA had pushed very hard to ensure that three-car carpools would be allowed for free.

However, the same MTA just told me, in the guise of spokesman Rick Jager, that this is only one of several scenarios being kicked around by MTA consultants.

So a discussion meant to clarify how the lanes will work just made things more confusing for me. If Duvall is right, then the plan makes a lot more sense: it incentivizes putting more people into one car without making it impossible for two-people carpools to use the lane.

If it isn't true, then how does the lane really encourage carpooling?

I think the three-person carpool would go a long way towards getting people to support the plan.... if it is going to happen, the sooner MTA says it, the better off we will all be.

Also of interest: the contract between the MTA and the Feds does forbid the MTA from charging a two-person carpool less than a one-person car. So there is no extra incentive to carpool than to drive yourself: other than splitting gas and toll money with another person.