The in basket: Richard Hood posted the following comment about the HOV lanes leading out of Bremerton toward Gorst on the Road Warrior blog at kitsapsun.com.
“These lanes are great for rush hour time,” he said, “but they sit nearly empty at other times. Could Bremerton maybe change the HOV restrictions to only certain times of the day?
“That’d be pretty convenient,” he said.” I don’t like having to merge at the end of the non-HOV lane.”
The out basket: That’s a state decision, not one for the city, and there’s a good chance the state will make the change soon.
Steve Kim, traffic engineer for the Olympic region, tells me they have decided to recommend limiting use of that lane to HOVs only during peak traffic hours, which probably would be just a short time on weekday afternoons. If that is done, all vehicles could use the inside lane at other times.
But they want the agreement of the city, Navy and Kitsap Transit that it’s a good idea, and they will be setting up a meeting with those agencies to discuss it, Steve said.
The same change might ultimately be made on the HOV lanes on Highway 16 around the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, he said, but they aren’t willing yet to make that an official recommendation.
As I mentioned the last time this came up, Mr. Hood not liking to merge at the end of the non-HOV lane is a moot point since if the HOV lane is “nearly empty” then there shouldn’t be anyone to merge with and thus he can just keep driving straight without any need to change speed. I am one of the people who use the HOV lane almost daily and really enjoy it’s presence even during non-peak hours.