When a driver inadvertently enters a pay lane on a Los Angeles County freeway, he is breaking the law and must pay a fine. If he ignores the fine, he faces add-on delinquent charges and a hold on his registration.

The fines for illegal use of what Metro calls Express Lanes represented 36.4 percent of the revenues collected by Metro from 2014 to 2016, according to an audit obtained by this newspaper in a public records request. Total revenues reached $130.9 million, with $47.3 million from fines and $83.6 million from the actual paid tolls.

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member and county Supervisor Janice Hahn has introduced a motion that will reduce the number of fines charged to drivers and open up a punitive system to the occasional user. Instead of always requiring purchase of a transponder and registering your car with Metro, Hahn suggests the agency make the toll lanes more user friendly.

“I would like to decriminalize our Express Lanes,” said Hahn during an interview last week. “It’s this whole shaming thing just for jumping into an Express Lane that bothers me. I think people in L.A. feel like driving and parking have become a criminal activity.”

If someone is late for work or needs to see their grandchild in the hospital, there’s no reason why they can’t ride the Express Lane, even without the transponder, Hahn said. Instead of sending them a violation notice, or a traffic ticket if caught by the CHP, Hahn wants to simply send them a bill for the toll and be done with it.

Under the current Metro Express Lane system, fines are $25 for the first violation. If not paid on time or ignored, a $30 delinquent penalty is added, bringing the fine to $55, plus the cost of the toll. If a motorist is pulled over by the CHP for illegal use of the toll lane, the fine is $341.

HOT lanes

Express Lanes exist on two freeways: on the 110 Freeway from the 405 Freeway to South Los Angeles and on the 10 Freeway between the 605 Freeway and the 101 Freeway in the west San Gabriel Valley.

After receiving a $210 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Metro converted the carpool lanes, known as High Occupancy Vehicle lanes to toll lanes, called High Occupancy Toll or HOT lanes in 2013.

The purpose was to give drivers the option of paying for a quicker ride, to reduce traffic congestion and reduce air emissions and greenhouse gas emissions. According to Metro, the two pay lanes reduced 118,844 kilograms per day of greenhouse gases, equal to removing 12,593 passenger vehicles per year.

The price of a ride fluctuates by time of day, costing more during rush hours and less during off-peak times. A round-trip during peak hours on the 10 Freeway Express Lanes is about $11. Besides a quicker ride for those willing to pay, the use of solo drivers in the car-pool lanes were supposed to lessen traffic in the general purpose lanes, although evidence is mixed.

Riders must pay $40 to $50 up front into a Metro account for each transponder plus a $25 security deposit. For each solo ride, money is deducted from the account. Cars with two or three occupants ride in the lanes toll-free.

Every car must have a FasTrak transponder or face fines and penalties from an automated system that captures the image of a license plate and sends out violation notices and bills. Drivers of electric and plug-in clean air vehicles with white or green stickers can set their transponder on “3” and ride toll free.

Orange County

Four toll roads in Orange County, the 73, 133, 241 and 261 allow for the one-time user to drive the toll road without a transponder.

That driver will still be mailed a violation notice but that is easily waived by simply paying the toll within 30 days, said Sarah King, spokesperson for the Transportation Corridor Agencies.

“It’s pay-as-you-go,” she explained in an interview. “You don’t have to have an account. You can drive on our roads (and pay the toll). It’s for the infrequent user or the visitor here for the first time.”

Repeat offenders without an account are charged a penalty, she said. Cheaper rates are made available to those with transponders and have registered their vehicles.

Hahn has asked Metro to look at other systems, including those in the Bay Area and Orange County. She’s interested in implementing a “pay-as-you-use” model for all drivers, she wrote in her motion, which comes before the full Metro board April 26.

“I say if you want to use it, great but we will charge you. We don’t have to give them a ticket and make them feel like criminals,” Hahn said.

Audit

A 2017 audit of the Metro Express Lane program tagged the vendor, Conduent, with several accounting and collection irregularities. For example, Conduent could not provide the auditors with supporting documents of revenues on several occasions and its staff “were not familiar with the reporting capabilities” of the program. The auditors found contradictory written policies, including those regarding tolls, violations and fines.

After finding the vendor had recorded some revenues twice to Metro and only became aware of the error after the auditor pointed it out, the auditor recommended Conduent improve its records management process, oversight and review of Express Lane revenues.

Customers can get a credit on their bill if the speeds of the pay lanes were below 45 mph as required by federal law. But the audit pointed out that customers can only get a “trip speed reversal” upon complaint, meaning they would have to know the average speed of traffic at the time.

Poor execution?

The proper management of Metro Express Lanes will become more important as Metro explores adding pay lanes to the 105 and 405 freeways as a way of adding congestion pricing to areas of the county served by those two freeways.

Still, during an October board meeting, the topic of pay lanes remained controversial. Hahn said the freeway signage is hard to understand, leading drivers into innocent mistakes and getting fined for management’s poor execution. She said many mistakenly think an HOV is a “high octane vehicle.”

Supervisor Hilda Solis said it can be dangerous entering and exit the lanes, due to a double-yellow line separating the Express Lanes from the general lanes used in LA County but not in Orange County.

Supervisor Sheila Kuehl is philosophically opposed to charging for freeways.

“What we are talking about is how we can make money for Metro. That is what the Express Lanes are about . And we do make money,” she said during the October meeting.

Total annual revenue from the two Express Lanes have increased, from $58.2 million in fiscal year 2015 to $72.7 million in fiscal year 2016, according to the audit. When first launched, Metro expected net annual revenues to be $8-$10 million. In just one year in 2014, the net revenue had reached $19 million. Board members then made the pilot program permanent.