New Highway 101 lane called a "disaster" because of extended HOV hours

[Auggie]

Gridlock worsens despite completing 52 mile carpool lane, according to drivers.

San Francisco Chronicle / 11-3-2025

(The new) carpool hours are meant to align Marin and Sonoma counties with the rest of the Bay Area. Regional transportation officials have tried to standardize the window for high-occupancy vehicles — with at least one passenger in addition to the driver — to two weekday rush hour periods. The morning period runs from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m., while the evening hours start at 3 p.m. and end at 7 p.m.

Officials at Caltrans imposed this split-schedule after adding diamond lanes to fix a notorious bottleneck between Petaluma and Novato, while also filling a “gap” in the 52-mile carpool lane network on 101, from Windsor to Mill Valley. Notably, the new hours apply to all 52 miles, which means one infrastructure project has vastly expanded the carpool window in both counties.

SNIP

Suddenly, motorists who found themselves jammed up on 101 would peer out their windows at a tantalizing sight: a beautiful and woefully underused diamond lane. With transit and carpools thinning out after 9 a.m., some drivers observed, with intensifying bitterness, that the diamond lane appeared to be sitting empty.

Drivers panned the new carpool hour regime as a “one size fits all” solution. They criticized officials for spending years on a project aimed to ease traffic, only to defeat the purpose entirely. They objected so loudly that leaders in Marin County and Sonoma County are now lobbying Caltrans to reverse course.

LINK (paywall): https://eedition.sfchronicle.com/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=1972fd3a-0c7f-479e-b2f0-4e0c25a5abe8&share=true

Examples (from the link):

• Before the carpool hours took effect in September, one driver typically left his house at 6:45 a.m., and slid into his desk at 7:30 a.m. Now he starts driving at 6:30 a.m. and straggles into work at 7:45 a.m., having endured an extra 25 minutes of waiting in gridlock.

• The same driver said he's grateful for the solo drivers who snuck into the carpool lane and created a little more balance. “If it wasn’t for the cheaters, it could be worse.”

• Another commuter said her commute to San Rafael has swelled from 20 minutes to upward of an hour. “All that to travel 12 miles."

Both commuters believe 101 could improve everywhere if carpool hours were limited to times when people are more likely to carpool.

Meanwhile, Staff at Caltrans assured in a statement that they are working “as quickly as possible” to gather data, understand the impacts of the revised HOV hours, and “determine the best path forward.”

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Speaking as someone who essentially became self-employed to avoid commuting (it was one of two or three reasons), car pooling and public transportation are not always easy, available or time-saving. CalTrans needs to amend carpool lane hours system-wide. And communities need to continue to build cluster-type housing near transportation centers, improve mass transit, etc. And business should embrace the work-from-home option as much as possible.

[hunter]

1. I lost any tolerance I had for commuting more than thirty years ago.

Miles and miles of stop-and-go freeway traffic would leave me frazzled when I finally arrived at work.

I could get to work just as fast on my bicycle, using surface streets and a few shortcuts that were not open to automobile traffic, but only at the risk of being killed or maimed by drivers oblivious to bicycles.

The best solution to this kind of traffic would be to tear down the freeways and rebuild our cities, turning them into attractive, affordable places where car ownership is unnecessary.

[Auggie]

2. Yeah ... I lost it for public transit in SF

I could walk to work often faster than the 41 Muni could get me there. 30 minutes. Busses were packed, no seats, stinking hot, and gridlocked on Columbus Ave.

Starting my own business and working from home in San Francisco was glorious.

Really should expand the work-from-home model. It would open up the freeways for people that have no other option but to drive.

[JoseBalow]

3. Connect SMART to BART, extend it directly into the city

If SMART could get you into the city without having to hop a ferry or bus, I think many more commuters would use it, making the 101 much less of a nightmare in the North Bay.

I've always thought it was ridiculous to terminate the line in Larkspur. Spend the money and dig a tunnel under the Golden Gate, or even add a long route around via the East Bay if necessary. But SMART is not very convenient to most North Bay commuters heading into the city as it is now. If it were connected directly to BART, people would use it.