Why are there access points along the Express Lanes?
The dedicated access points encourage people to plan ahead. It is unsafe to merge across five lanes of freeway traffic to reach an exit at the last minute. The striping was designed so that motorists have enough time to safely cross all of the lanes before they exit the freeway. Access points range from 3,000 to 9,000 feet long, giving plenty of room for users to enter and exit the lanes or pass a slow driver. Other states that implemented similar changes to their Express Lanes found that after creating the dedicated access points, traffic speeds actually increased in their Express Lanes. Research showed that motorists in the Express Lanes drive slower when the traffic in the lane next to them is moving at a significantly slower pace. Drivers moving at freeway speeds in the Express Lanes are expecting that a vehicle in the congested, adjacent lane will pull out in from of them. Dedicated access points minimize this concern, giving Express Lane users confidence to travel at freeway spee
