Rather than carpool, drivers adapt to gridlock: analyst

Drivers are getting more cozy in their fully equipped cars and becoming accustomed to gridlock, which one traffic analyst said is leading to the demise of carpooling.

"[You have] entertainment systems, you have language lessons, you have cellphones," said Pravin Varaiya, an engineering professor at the University of California at Berkeley. "It's your little space and you have some free time, if you can call it that."

Varaiya said that when the first High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) carpooling lanes were introduced more than 30 years ago, drivers were considerably resistant.

"There was a lot of protest 'Here's an empty lane and we are all stuck,'" Varaiya said.

Instead of changing their travelling habits and arranging carpools of three or more, drivers instead adjusted to gridlock, he noted.

'If you do a spot analysis of certain locations, it may show that you have a problem.' Randy Iwasaki, California Department of Transportation

To increase the use of the HOV lanes, the California Department of Transportation has widened eligibility by allowing single drivers of hybrid cars to use the HOV lanes. The state department has also reduced the occupancy requirement to two people.

Randy Iwasaki, the deputy director of CalTrans, said the program doesn't work everywhere.

"If you do a spot analysis of certain locations, it may show that you have a problem," he said.

But, CalTrans said the program does save drivers time, estimating that HOV lane users save about one minute per mile during peak rush-hour time periods.

Canadians spend 63 minutes a day commuting

Similar programs have been tried in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. Last December, Ontario's transportation minister said the HOV lanes along Highways 403 and 404 have been successful, saving drivers an average of 17 minutes per trip.

However, drivers in Calgary have been slow to adapt to carpooling.

Ron Schafer, a transportation demand specialist for the city, said about 40 per cent of Calgarians make one-person car trips to get to work. Another 42 per cent travel by public transit, while less than 10 per cent use carpools.

A 2005 Statistics Canada study found that the average Canadian spends close to 12 full days a year travelling between work and home. The study found that Canadians spent an average of 63 minutes a day commuting.