Utah Legislature: Senate committee advances bill to open HOV lanes

SALT LAKE CITY — A bill that would open up high-occupancy vehicle lanes to all drivers during non-peak traffic hours is headed to the Senate for a vote.

The bill barely made it out of the Senate Transportation, Public Utilities and Technology Committee on Tuesday afternoon.

The vote initially was split along party lines, with Sens. Brent Goodfellow, D-West Valley City, and Karen Mayne, D-West Valley City, voting in favor of SB38, and Sens. Kevin Van Tassell, R-Vernal, and Peter Knudson, R-Brigham City, voting in opposition.

After a tie had been declared, Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layon, entered the committee room and was asked to vote. He voted in favor of the legislation.

SB38, sponsored by Sen. Karen Morgan, D-Cottonwood Heights, calls for HOV lanes to be open to all vehicles except from 6-9 a.m. and 4-7 p.m. Monday through Friday. It would remove the double striping that prohibits vehicles from entering and exiting the lanes wherever drivers please.

During the committee meeting, Morgan read letters from Utah residents who are unhappy with the current HOV rules, which reserve the lanes for carpools, motorcycles and permitted single-occupant vehicles for motorists who pay the state $50 a month.

HOV lanes are open to regular traffic during non-peak times in more than a dozen states, Morgan said.

"Sometimes in the middle of the day there is congestion; the freeway can be crowded," she said. "People can't move over and use that lane. It is wasted pavement."

But Utah Department of Transportation deputy director Carlos Braceras said the bill would interfere with the $14 million electronic tolling system that will be installed starting in the spring. Drivers would be charged each time they used a portion of the 50-mile HOV lane, Braceras said, and prices would be set higher during high-congestion to discourage HOV lane use, which keeps traffic flowing.

HOV lanes came to Utah in 2001. Part of the project was paid for with federal congestion mitigation money, Braceras said.

In 2005, the Utah Legislature passed SB25, which started the sticker program, after a task force spent a year examining UDOT's traffic data.

UDOT officials said it will cost $7 million to install signs to accommodate Morgan's bill, an estimate the senator said she believes is too high.

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