If you’re a unfortunate suburb-to-city commuter like me, then you too anticipated the opening of DART’s HOV lanes on 75 and 635. We commuters sat there in gridlock day after day, longingly watching crews construct those lanes, daydreaming about the traffic relief they’d undoubtedly deliver us.
Then the lanes opened…and absolutely nothing changed.
Talk about disappointment.
The problem, in part, is the entrance points into these lanes–or lack there of, I should say.
I actually carpool to and from work two days a week. So the first day those lanes opened, I couldn’t wait for smooth sailing home.
Instead, I got into the HOV lane, only to pass through Dallas, through Richardson, and pass the exit to my house. I was literally trapped in the HOV lane, that’s to those irritating plastic lane dividers. And so I had no choice but to keep driving, and driving, and driving–until I reached Plano. When there was finally a break in the dividers, I was able to exit, about 8 miles past my house. I had to backtrack through the side streets, adding about 20 minutes to my commute. Nice.
But some drivers have started taking matters into their own hands, creating exits where they don’t exist. In fact, in just two short months drivers have crashed through more than 500 of those plastic barriers.
DART’s response? A redesign of sorts. They’ll start by removing about half of those never-ending plastic barriers, and creating more exit points along the lanes.
And so until then, I continue to sit gridlocked, looking out my car window and still daydreaming of what it will be like once we have HOV lanes that actually serve a purpose.