Houston HOV/HOT Lane Implementation
The goal of this page is to communicate proper mapping of high occupancy vehicle and high occupancy toll lanes (HOV/HOT lanes) in the Houston area. As Waze does not fully support HOV lanes as of yet, this implementation accomplishes the following goals:
- Allows drivers to use the HOV/HOT lanes as toll routes during the allowed times
- Prevents HOV drivers who have manually routed into the HOV lanes from being improperly routed out of them
- Lays the groundwork for full HOV support when Waze implements support for different vehicle types in the app
More details about the currently enforced hours and HOV/HOT lane routes is available here: http://www.ridemetro.org/Pages/HOVandHOTLanes.aspx.
General Rules
- If applicable, only entrance ramps should have the toll flag set. This prevents drivers with toll avoidance enabled from being routed into the HOV/HOT lanes. It also allows an HOV driver with toll avoidance enabled that has manually driven into the HOV/HOT lanes from being prematurely routed out of the HOV/HOT lanes if the toll flag were set on the main HOV/HOT lanes or exit ramps.
- Some HOV/HOT lane routes only allow HOV drivers with a minimum number of passengers during certain hours. These are known as "2+" or "3+" drivers, and reflect the required minimum number of passengers during the restricted hours. These restrictions should be specified on the entrance ramps only.
- HOV/HOT lane restrictions on the main lanes should only be set up on two-way segments. This prevents routing the wrong direction, such as routing outbound during the morning inbound hours. Main lane restrictions should always be total restrictions and not vehicle specific.
- No restrictions should be set on exit ramps
Current HOV/HOT Lane Timings