Calgary set to expand high-occupancy vehicle lanes

Calgary isplanning to reducetraffic congestion by creating a network of high occupancy vehicle lanes.

At the moment, only 25 blocks of Centre Street N. in the city's downtown have a designated high occupancy vehicle (HOV) carpool lane, but over the next few decades nearly every major road in Calgary will have a lane designated only for carpoolsand multi-passenger vehicles.

"There won't be anything initially, but over the next few years and even decades we'll be implementing this plan," the city's manager of network planning Anne Cataford says.

The existing HOV lane has only had limited success, as driver complaints about losing a lane on an already congested road have been met by predictable attempts to cheat the system,Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart said.

But as the network expands, so will enforcement.

Colley-Urquhart advocates increasing fines for non-compliance to the $120 rangeand using technology to catch drivers trying to game the system.

And anyone thinking a cardboard cutout or plastic blowup doll in the passenger seat will be enough can think again.

"[We'll be] using infrared cameras to see how many people and passengers are in a vehicle," Cataford says.

The city has now begun to consider which roads would be the best candidates for new HOV lanes.