TORONTO — Drivers without passengers will be able to buy permits to use the high-occupancy vehicle lanes on the Queen Elizabeth Way between Oakville and Burlington starting Sept. 15.
Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca says there will be a four-year pilot project on the QEW with so-called high-occupancy toll lanes before the government creates a network of fully electronic HOT lanes in southern Ontario.
Drivers will be able to purchase a "limited" number of three-month permits for $180 that will allow them to use the lanes meant for car pooling, which require at least one passenger for vehicles to use for free.
There will be one-thousand HOT permits available for each three month period, and people will be able to apply online through Service Ontario starting Aug. 1.
Permits will be awarded by lottery, which Del Duca says is the fairest method of distribution, and is similar to the method used to award hunting licences.
The first batch of HOT permits will be good until Dec. 31, two weeks longer than the usual three-month terms.
"The only infrastructure change that drivers will notice on the highway will be signage: HOV lanes on the QEW from Trafalgar Rd. to Guelph Line will be renamed HOT lanes," said Del Duca.
"We are shifting our focus for only the QEW pilot from revenue generation to introducing a new travel method to commuters."
The province announced earlier that a 15.5 kilometre stretch of dedicated HOT lanes will open in 2021 on Highway 427 from Highway 409 to north of Rutherford Rd.
The New Democrats have long criticized the idea of letting drivers who can afford it buy their way into the lanes reserved for car pooling, calling them 'Lexus' lanes.
