KIRKLAND — The state Transportation Commission is expected Wednesday night to decide what it will cost to drive in the express toll lanes on I-405 between Lynnwood and Bellevue and to adopt new rules for carpoolers during commute hours.
Commissioners are scheduled to meet in Kirkland to hear public comment then act on the rates and rules for a 17-mile stretch of toll lanes starting this fall.
The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at Kirkland City Hall, 123 Fifth Ave. An open house about the project will begin at 5:30.
Under the proposed recommendation, drivers would pay a minimum of 75 cents and a maximum of $10, depending on traffic volume in regular lanes. By comparison, travel in the high-occupancy toll lanes on Highway 167 costs a minimum of 50 cents to a maximum of $9.
The proposed rules for carpooling are drawing the most attention from I-405 travelers.
Commissioners are set to require that carpool vehicles have three or more people to be exempt from paying during peak hours — defined as 5 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 7 p.m. — and two people the rest of the time. Motorcycles, transit vehicles and vanpools will be exempt from tolls at all times.
Commissioners have spent six weeks gathering comments on the toll rate proposal. They’ve held four public hearings, received roughly 750 emails and another 57 comments through an online site, the Voice of Washington State.
The vast majority of responses focus on the carpool rules rather than the rates. Some people called them too stringent and others warned they will force them back into the regular traffic lanes and make congestion worse on that stretch of the highway.
Reema Griffith, executive director of the commission, said members understand it is an unpopular change for drivers. But the goal is to ensure that HOV lanes are moving at all times of the day not be as congested during peak hours as the regular travel lanes.
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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