No plans to expand HOV requirements … yet

While the new HOV lanes on I-405 will sometimes require three-plus occupants in a car, there are no immediate plans to mirror the changes on any other local freeways.

However, Lynn Peterson, the secretary of the Washington State Department of Transportation, indicated the idea hasn’t been completely dismissed.

“So I don’t want to predict the future, but … this is part of the tools in the toolbox,” Peterson said. “And as we discuss I-5 with those cities along that corridor, it’s definitely something that will be discussed for the long term, but I can’t predict.”

Related: Why empty buses are allowed to use HOV lanes

It’s up to the State Transportation Commission, not the Department of Transportation, to set the HOV requirements. It made the change to from two-plus to three-plus occupants during peak hours on the new I-405 Express Toll Lanes from Bellevue to Lynnwood to help ensure that those lanes would run at 45 miles per hour, on average. Those lanes will be two-plus for drivers the rest of the time.

Peterson said the change reflects the reality of the current transportation system and new way of thinking to make it work better.

“As with any major metropolitan area, as we grow, there is an increased demand on our system and we need to figure out how to best manage that demand,” she explained. “There will be an impact on people who were used to two-plus, but those folks can still use those toll lanes. They will just have to pay now.”

Other roads that will or could become toll roads? The new Highway 99 tunnel through Seattle will be tolled when it is completed. The extension of Highway 167 to the Port of Tacoma could become a toll road, and the 509 extension to I-5 could also get tolls. I-90 is still, technically, a toll bridge.

Tolling begins on I-405 on Sept. 27.