POLL: Will Double Carpool Lanes Ease Traffic?

Any commute that involves driving on Highway 101 is often coupled with a frustrated bracing for inevitable traffic.

However, by the end of summer 2013, there will be a second carpool lane added to Highway 101 in both directions from Highway 85 in Mountain View to Embarcadero Road in Palo Alto, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

The entire project will cost $72 million. It's an effort to keep traffic flowing as commuters merge in and out of the carpool lane.

With two lanes, commuters can pass slow vehicles and be more flexible in case or an accident or a breakdown, Bob Poole, transportation director of the Reason Foundation think tank told the Mercury News. 

The Authority can also charge a lower toll if there are two lanes to accommodate paying customers instead of one, Poole said, good news as the northward, toward Millbrae.

Additional traffic improvements will include: widening the southbound Oregon Expressway onramp, adding a lane on the southbound Old Middlefield Way onramp and installing meters at northbound Amphitheatre Parkway and San Antonio Road ramps.

Another large traffic project includes adding carpool lanes from Highway 237 almost to Highway 101, that will cost $68 million. This also includes redesigning Brokaw Road ramps, which lead to the San Jose International Airport, and extending southbound merge lane and adding meters for northbound commute.

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