HOV in BDA
15Oct2007
I blogged briefly once before about HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes in Washington DC.
I think there is a way to reduce traffic congestion in Bermuda – implement HOV lanes here. Now, the whole idea behind HOV lanes is that you have one regular lane (I would call that a Single High Occupancy Vehicle, or SOV lane) in addition to the HOV lane. As there is only one Dual Carriageway on the island, that’s a tricky thing to do.
So the way to work it would be as follows: convert both lanes of Middle Road into one-way traffic into Hamilton between 7am and 9am in the mornings. Anyone travelling with more than one person, be it in a car or on a scooter, gets to go in the outside lane. Everyone else goes in the inside lane. But one way only. Into town. Want to travel in the opposite direction? Tough.
Then it’s simply a question of reversing the traffic flow between 4pm and 6pm so there are two lanes of traffic going out of Hamilton along Middle Road.
The only issue I see with this approach? It becomes so successful that the Government decide to “improve” it by implementing the same two-lane scheme they have at the airport.
Solution – make the inbound lane of Harbour Road in the morning a HOV lane. Also allow bikes in this HOV lane. Leave all the SOV on South Shore. In addition, only allow access to Harbour Rd at Burnt House hill… and close off Stowe Hill.