You'll soon be able to get free towing on most Harris...

When other people are leaving work is when Enrique Luna gets to work, right beside homeward-bound commuters along a Houston freeway, ready to get a stranded vehicle out of the way.

Inching along Interstate 45 behind the wheel of a tow truck, Luna spends most of his time looking and listening — making intermittent loops through the congestion looking for stranded vehicles on the shoulder and listening to about a half-dozen police scanners and radios around the truck’s cabin.

“You listen for words,” Luna explains. “Then you drown out the other ones to listen to that one radio.”

At any moment, one of the swarm of Tow and Go trucks sitting beneath overpasses or rolling along crowded Houston freeways can be dispatched to a disabled car or truck and remove it from the freeway for free.

Soon, the swarm will have more territory to roam, with a planned expansion to more freeway lanes in Harris County.

The program tows motorists off Houston freeways free of charge to a safe location up to a mile away. Tows are authorized by law enforcement at Houston TranStar, the region’s traffic management hub.

Most cars and trucks, as well as motorcycles, are eligible for a free tow if stranded by a flat tire or engine failure. Vehicles immobilized by crashes are not eligible, as they typically are towed by insurance companies.

After that free 1-mile tow to a safe spot, usually a restaurant or gas station, the vehicle’s driver is on his own to call roadside assistance or hire another wrecker.

Officials are finalizing contracts with towing companies that provide the service to expand the free tows to most of Harris County. The expansion will take Tow and Go from around 175 miles of freeway to about 245 miles, when both directions are patrolled, program manager David Fink said.

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Initially officials had hoped to launch the expanded service on March 1, but the ongoing contract work likely will make that impossible. Fink said he now expects all of the county expansion to happen at the beginning of April or May.

The program originated as SafeClear, a Houston program under then-Mayor Bill White that offered free tows inside the city. In 2011, citing the cost, Houston began charging $50 for tows, and the popularity of the program quickly declined.

Seeing how fast stranded vehicles were cleared, regional planners worked for years to resurrect it. When the service restarted in May 2018, officials hoped to have a countywide system in place by early 2019.

The service is funded with federal and state money aimed at congestion relief and safety, controlled by the Houston-Galveston Area Council. Stranded vehicles blocking lanes or road shoulders contribute to traffic, and removing them quickly is “one of the most effective things we have seen,” said Alan Clark, director of transportation and air quality programs for H-GAC.

The expansion to Harris County, however, comes with a few exceptions, Fink said. Baytown, Pasadena and Deer Park have not joined the program, which would require them to amend their existing tow contracts and authorize their police officers to order tows off the freeway.

Fink also said the program is limited to where Houston TranStar monitors traffic with video cameras, which means Tow and Go service on U.S. 290 ends around Mueschke Road, and Interstate 10 towing stops at Spur 330 at Baytown.

Eventually, provided funding and interest remains high, Fink said the goal is to move beyond Harris County into other counties where freeways are monitored.

Along Harris County Toll Road Authority roadways, such as the Sam Houston Tollway and Katy Managed Lanes along I-10, a separate service overseen by the toll authority provides similar roadside assistance.

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The program assists between 4,300 and 5,400 stranded motorists a month, according to Houston TranStar data. In January, the service logged 4,548 incidents, most ending in a quick tow off the freeway.

Since the service was revived by H-GAC, roughly two-thirds of the tows followed mechanical failures, said Fink, manager of H-GAC’s regional incident management program. The remaining tows were the result of flat tires.

Tow and Go drivers — who work for local towing firms that have contracts for service along specific segments of the freeway — can change a flat tire if a spare is available or jump a dead battery for free, Luna said. Typically, they will tow someone off the roadway to perform the work.

“It is safer for me as well as the customer,” Luna said on a recent shift.

Finding someone to help can be hit or miss. Making his way along I-45 and Texas 288 within Loop 610 on a recent shift, Luna cast a wide net, scanning the freeway ahead and behind him as Boston’s “More Than A Feeling” strummed along amid the police scanners.

So many people coming and going, it made for a congested freeway. Luna said that is exactly why the service helps keep people moving.

Even those who have never needed Luna or his fellow tow truck drivers say they welcome having them on the road.

“As many times as I see someone on the side of the road, I’m glad it’s not me,” said Clark Kelly, 55, who commutes along I-10 from Spring Hill Village to downtown. “When it is me, I want someone there.”

dug.begley@chron.com