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When Edmonton launched its program, several thousand commuters signed up, mostly from Leduc, Fort Saskatchewan and Sherwood Park. But the program had little promotion after the first year. It also had few incentives – no carpool lanes and few, if any, parking spaces reserved for carpool users.

That’s likely why it didn’t meet city staff expectations and was cut, Thornton said. If the region goes ahead with carpool lanes, that gives a perfect opportunity to try again.

What people don’t understand is that carpools can be flexible. It’s often one way, paired with transit, or just a couple of days a week, she said. “If everyone carpooled once a week, that’s roughly 20 per cent of the cars off the road.”

But politicians need to be prepared for some pushback initially, Thornton said. “If there’s a new lane on the highway, they want everybody to be able to use it. It can be politically unpopular.”

Drivers and transit users seemed intrigued by the idea Saturday.

“It’s a good idea for sure,” said Airport Taxi driver Harvir Khaira. “We have people from other countries coming to Edmonton and getting stuck in traffic, that’s not a good impression.”

But he sees more issues with the short merge lanes on the Anthony Henday than on the QEII. He’d like those addressed first.

Leduc resident Goran Crnkovic said congestion is already bad and giving transit a leg up would be great. He used to drive, then started taking Leduc transit into Edmonton when his girlfriend needed the car.

Transit doubles his trip time to downtown Edmonton, from 50 minutes to one hour and 40 minutes. He takes a community bus, commuter bus, then Metro LRT line. Since neither transit system has secure bike parking, he can’t shave time that way, and with no regional integration, he’s forced to pay full price for a Leduc and an Edmonton transit pass.

“It’s a hard sell,” he said, unsure if transit even saves him money. “It’s almost equivalent to insurance and gas on the car.”

He’s thought of carpooling, he said, but hasn’t tried it yet. “I don’t want to deal with other people mostly.”

Carpool/Bus-only lanes pitched for the Capital Region

The AECOM report says each of these proposals needs further study. But here are its ideas on each of six corridors (click on the image, then each point to read the descriptions):