Friday, January 04, 2008

North Texas HOV Lanes Now Open

The main North and South Highway through North Dallas, Central Expressway (Highway 75), finally opened the well anticipated HOV lanes (High Occupancy Vehicles). The lanes go for 14 miles from Highway 635 north through Allen and into McKinney.

You would think the HOV lanes would be a good thing. On the surface, they're fabulous. However, Donna not happy!! When Donna not happy, everyone will hear about it!! Plus, no one in Richardson should be happy because we got the short end of the HOV stick!

Here is part of what I wrote to my HOA president:

"I was wondering if you knew who we would contact at the city of Richardson about the new HOV lanes on 75. This is ridiculous that there is no place in Richardson where it allows us, their own residents, to get in and/or out of the HOV lanes. Since there is no way on while going south, we can't even take advantage of the new HOV lanes going up the high-five to 635. Going up north, we can't get in the HOV lane because there is no way out of it until Parker in Plano. I thinks it's very ridiculous as we all sat through the pains of the construction for all those months and we can't even utilize the improvement, and that's a bad word because it doesn't improve anything for me or anyone else in Richardson."

I actually did get a response back from my HOA president in which he forwarded me the response from the city manager:

"We have had a few other inquiries on this, so we will be posting an explanation on the City's website. It is not there yet, so I am trying to get the timing. I'll get back to you soon with a date. Directing Donna and your residents to the website explanation is probably the best first step.

As you may recall from our Council briefings on this, we did not like the lack of an opening in Richardson, but TXDOT insisted that they start the HOV in the current configuration. They have agreed to revisit our request for access after the current configuration has been open for a few months. What it should do, even in the current configuration, is reduce the congestion on the main lanes. This is not ideal, but it is in place and will hopefully have a positive impact for Richardson travelers as well as regional travelers. We will certainly keep working the issue."


Donna NOT happy!! We sat through all this contruction. We waited for the highly anticipated opening for months!! And now they tell us that we can't use the lanes. If you also disagree with this, please let the City Manager for Richardson TX know so we can make some changes. You can send all your concerns to Pamela Schmidt at pamela.schmidt@cor.gov.

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1 Comments:

At 5:55 PM, Blogger Traci said...

I feel you, sister! I live off of 1-90 East and I have to travel to 35 and Inwood everyday. I was able to sit through the construction of the HOV knowing that I would soon reap the benefits!

Well, I am NOT happy, either! I refuse to sit in that traffic so I have been getting on 75N and U-turning at Spring Creek just to access the dumb HOV. That takes approximately 8 minutes, so when some lady had a flat in the HOV the other day, I doubled back for NOTHING!!!

My husband has to hear me complain about this everyday, so thank you for providing a name to send my 'concerns' or frustrations to!

 

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