Bus priority lanes would be built on expressways and parkways, but they would be more efficient than existing high-occupancy lanes because special ramps would help buses avoid traffic.
The service, which shaves about 15 minutes from a trip without the high-occupancy lanes, started with three passengers in January 1996 and now carries 60 to 70 a day, Mr. Cronin said.
After a few meetings, a very interesting tactic on the part of the D.O.T. became obvious: When the time came for suggestions, the department's observers (they were not members of the committees) would propose their favorite solutions, like widening roads and building more high-occupancy lanes.
In California the leading regional markets are San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, all metropolitan areas notorious for their high congestion levels and where free access to high-occupancy lanes for solo drivers has been a strong incentive to boost Volt sales in the state.
Detailed measurements of vehicle counts, speeds, occupancies, lane changing maneuvers and travel times were taken.
And they said they would promote "time of use" electric rates that would allow charging at off-peak prices, and expand incentives like high-occupancy lane access and reduced tolls and preferential parking.
Plug In America supports the principle of specialty plates for easy identification of cars with high-occupancy-lane privileges and for other reasons, like for quick verification of their right to occupy a public charging space.
L. 97 424, § 120(b)(1), substituted "high occupancy vehicle lanes" for "bus lanes" after "preferential", and "high occupancy vehicle and" for "bus and other" after "facilities to serve".
In traffic-bound areas like Orange County, Calif., HOT (high occupancy toll) lanes are replacing H.O.V. (high occupancy vehicle) lanes.
