High-Occupancy-Vehicle Expressway with Regional Express Buses
The HOV Expressway will be developed through a partnership between the RTA and the state Transportation Department. It expands and improves upon a network that the region has already begun, creating a permanent part of our regional transit system. The HOV Expressway includes the state's program to fill the gaps and extend the existing HOV-lane system to create a continuous inside-lane HOV network.
The RTA will fund special access ramps to make it easier for transit and carpools to reach and use the HOV Expressway. Traffic flow will also improve in general purpose lanes since buses and carpools will no longer have to weave through several lanes of traffic to reach the HOV lanes.
The HOV Expressways create new links between suburban centers serving our region's fastest growing areas with fast efficient transportation options. A single HOV lane carries the same number of people as three general traffic lanes.
New regional express bus routes will take advantage of the improved speed and reliability the HOV Expressway will offer. 
The new high-speed regional express bus routes will offer frequent, two-way service throughout the day. The regional express buses will serve major regional centers and destinations and provide connections to other transportation components of Sound Move.
Working with the state Transportation Department and through the annual budget review process, the RTA will fund construction of new access ramps to the existing and already funded HOV lanes or fund other appropriate alternatives. The state Transportation Department will then move all HOV lanes in those corridors to the inside lane of the road.
The RTA Board views completion of the state's freeway HOV lane "core system" in the Puget Sound region as an important priority. However, the RTA assumes the state will complete construction of the core HOV lane system in accordance with its freeway HOV policy.
If the state does not fulfill its funding obligation, the RTA Board will conduct an open and public process to determine whether RTA funding is available (e.g. from savings realized in other program elements) and should be used to help complete the core HOV lane system.
Because the RTA will be making a significant investment in the state high-occupancy vehicle system, it will have an on-going interest in how that system functions. Before committing funds for HOV projects, the RTA Board must be satisfied that the HOV system will be managed in a way that maintains adequate speed and reliability for transit into the future.
The RTA will negotiate an agreement with the state Transportation Department and the Puget Sound Regional Council similar to the state Transportation Commission's existing Statewide Freeway High-Occupancy Vehicle Policy to specify mutually acceptable speed and reliability standards, and how those standards will be monitored and maintained. In negotiating this agreement the RTA will seek to specify how it will be compensated if those standards are not maintained and the advantages to transit created by its investment are reduced.
The RTA will develop park-and-ride lots and transit centers that support the HOV Expressway and regional bus systems through a joint development program designed to establish and promote public/private partnerships and partnerships with local jurisdictions. The RTA will look at ways to develop facilities that are pedestrian-friendly and easier to reach from adjacent communities by alternatives to the car (i.e. walking, biking and transit). Access improvements that extend the benefits and the scope of transit system to more people and to more places will be considered eligible for RTA funding as part of individual project budgets.
