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Keith McCord Reporting In five days, significant changes will be in place on I-15 in Salt Lake County. If you drive in the carpool lanes, you will be restricted as to where you can enter and exit those lanes. Next Monday, the UHP will begin watching and issuing citations for those who do it wrong.
UDOT crews have been re-striping the express lanes for the last few weeks. Salt Lake County is done, and the lanes in Utah County will be completed later this month. Starting Monday, those lines will mean something!
From 6th North in Salt Lake City, to University Parkway in Orem, you'll see the double white lines marking the I-15 "Express Lanes", 38 miles in all. Starting Monday morning, the UHP will begin enforcing the proper use of these lanes.
Nile Easton, UHP Public Information Officer: "The lanes have been striped for a couple of weeks and people can still get away from moving in and out, but starting Monday, you're not going to want to do that anymore."
Think of the double white lines as a continuous concrete barrier. Crossing over them will be illegal. The only areas where you can get in or out of the lane, is where the dashed lines begin. There are 15 of these so-called ingress and egress areas along the route. And they don't necessarily correspond with each of the major interchanges.
Nile Easton, UHP Public Information Officer: "I think once people get used to where there exit is, it's going to work a lot better. It'll be a lot safer for motorists, but there will definitely be a learning curve."
The fines for crossing over where you're not supposed to will be about $100. Starting Monday, UHP troopers will be watching.
Nile Easton, UHP Public Information Officer: "They'll issue warnings the first few days they've actually got some hand-outs that they'll give to people, that will explain the rules, what the violation rate is, and where they can get in and out."
Currently, only carpoolers can use these lanes, but starting August 10th, motorists can buy stickers -- for 50 dollars a month-- that will allow a single occupant to drive in the carpool lanes. UDOT will initially sell 600 stickers.
Nile Easton: "It's looking very popular. Already we've had more than 700 requests for decals, and we anticipate that on August 10 at 8am there will be a big crunch on our servers for people to get in and buy their stickers!"
Again, those stickers are available online only starting August 10th; solo driving in the HOV lanes then begins September first.
