Toll lane for 405 goes nowhere in Legislature
Published 11:15 pm Thursday, March 11, 2010
OLYMPIA — Toll lanes on I-405 got the cold shoulder from the Legislature this year.
A bill to try out a “high occupancy toll” lane on I-405 from I-5 in Lynnwood south to Bellevue is dead for the session because of inaction by the Senate. This was a proposed pilot project on a new lane proposed for construction by the state Department of Transportation.
The toll, or HOT, lanes would be open to carpools, vanpools, transit vehicles and toll-paying vehicles.
Under the original bill, cars with a minimum of three people would have been allowed to travel free in the HOT lane while cars with two or fewer people would be charged.
Senators didn’t like the three-person minimum and changed it to two — the number now allowed in carpool lanes — which upset supporters of the original bill.
The state is planning to widen I-405 between Lynnwood and Bellevue and it is expected the issue of HOT lanes and carpool lanes will be revisited in 2011.
