What Happened?
For years, US 36 in between Boulder in Denver was known as one of the most congested highways in the state. Now, with funds provided by the federal government, the US 36 will include bike lanes, HOV lanes with electronic tolls for single passenger cars and bus rapid transit service.
The Goal
It would seem that true mass transit has finally arrived. According to the NYTimes.com, US 36 was built in 1952 for $6.3M and designed to carry 3,000 cars per day. By 1966, more than 14,000 cars were using the road, climbing to 100,000+ today. The new highway is being funded in two phases, with the HOV toll lanes financed by private investors who will earn revenue from toll shares. The combination of HOV lanes for multi-passenger vehicles with tolls for single passenger vehicles has been gaining adoption over the last 10 years. But the addition of bike lanes to allow for alternative transportation options on the same highway is new.
EfficientGov’s Solutions
Within the past year, Gov1 has covered transportation exhaustively, writing about:
- Bike superhighways in Copenhagen, where 50 percent of commuters ride their bikes to work
- An inexpensive bike lane solution for cities in the US to allowing for existing rail tracks to be used
- Congestion pricing and its impact on downtown parking and traffic
- The impact of “sustainable streets” on retail/shopping and safety
Research
For more information and studies on HOV lanes we recommend doing the following Google Search: “HOV Lane Research,” which will bring up numerous PDFs of studies by states on HOV effectiveness, and The Reason Foundation - private funding of toll roads.