How much did the High-Occupancy Vehicle lane going over the Crescent City Connection cost? I’m betting it was expensive. The engineering, the civic planning, the beurocracy. It had to be quite a task to get this expanse conceived and created. Why then, might I ask, is it virtually impossible to find the entrance to the god damn thing?
My fiance and I have lived in Algiers Point for over a year and we have never been able to gather where the entrance to the HOV lane is or what the hours are or, anything about it really. Sure, we hear our friends talking about it and we even see the happy morning commuters traveling over it en route to work each day. But never have we ever seen even one damn sign pointing us in the direction of this underground railroad.
Well, today I picked up my girl and we made a vow. We were taking the HOV lane back to Algiers. So we set about looking for it. One wrong turn here, a few honks of the horn there, another wrong-way down a one-way here and we were clueless. We finally found our way onto the CCC, got stuck in traffic and hopped back off the bridge very near where we saw the HOV lane beginning to form. Then we followed our instinct back to where we thought it began and, luckily, we gambled and won. We were in the HOV lane and en route back to the Point. It was somewhere near the Dome. Not sure the exact location. Certainly couldn’t find it again.
I would like to add that at no point in my search, did I ever see even one sign directing me to where the HOV lane began. Not even at the entrance to the damn thing was there a sign. No “HOV Lane Entrance” sign, no nothing. It was only because I had vague recollections of one night using it with my neighbors after a Jazzfest show at the State Palace that was able to figure out that we were on the right track
So, New Orleans, please, for the love of god, I know you have your hands full right now. But it wouldn’t bankrupt the city to post a few signs here and there directing folks to the glory of the HOV lane. You spent the money building it, we might as well get some use out of it.
Also, I checked the Louisiana DOT Web site for the location and there was no listing. Asking random lunatics on the street may provide more useful information. I remember one of them telling me New Orleans was a flood-prone bowl once as well.
Varg,
I can tell you from DeGualle – going towards the bridge, go under the overpass, take a right like your going to the toll tag store. This will take you to HOV. Coming back to the WB, the easiest way is down by the Convention Center. I haven’t taken the HOV in a long time so cannot be more specific than this.
BTW – there are no signs because primarily Westbankers use it. I guess you’ve figured out by now that Algerines are the step-children. 🙂
I once heard us referred to as “separatists.” Then I knew I was in the right ‘hood. Of course, there is always the “Brooklyn of New Orleans” moniker.
Yeah, bra – you in the right ‘hood. We march to our own drummer. Hell, we made the drum!
is there a map anywhere telling you where it goes??
There are three entrances from the Westbank: the one from de Gaulle mentioned above, one from the elevated expressway just before the toll plaza, and one from ground-level by Oakwood [just before the Donner Canal].
There are two from the Eastbank: the one from Convention Center Boulevard is mentioned above; the other is at the intersection of Earhart Boulevard and Magnolia Street – I used this one to get home from McMain back in the 1990s.