Shenzhen will initiate a study on the feasibility of instituting high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes on Meiguan Expressway and Nanping Expressway, two expressways linking to the city’s CBDs.

Unlike high-occupancy vehicles (HOV) lanes, HOT lanes allow single occupant vehicles (SOV) to gain access to HOT lanes if they choose to pay the applicable toll.

The move aims to encourage carpooling and reduce the number of vehicles on roads by using price and occupancy restrictions.

“Vehicles carrying more occupants can pay less and even enjoy toll-free travel. The benefit of HOT lanes is that they can act as fast lanes during traffic jams,” Xu Zhongping, deputy chief of Shenzhen Transportation Commission said.


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Shenzhen’s transportation commission is considering high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes on Nanping Expressway, Binhai and Binhe boulevards, the Daily Sunshine reported.

An HOV lane, or carpool lane, is a restricted traffic lane reserved at peak travel times for the exclusive use of vehicles with one or more passengers.

The news caused a public debate. People who agreed on this said it could improve use of road resources and reduce traffic congestion.

Citizen Mr Li held a different idea. He said:”It is difficult to execute. To set a HOV lane is to encourage carpool, but carpool is not protected by law recently. Once the driver gets the money from passengers, it will be considered as ‘illegal operation’. How to define the difference and relationship between ‘carpool’ and ‘illegal operation’ is difficult. Don’t launch HOV lane until carpool is legal.”

Citizen Ms Jiang said it is difficult to supervise in the long term, even the traffic police can’t tell how many people in the car as the front windscreen is dark. A neitizen joked to put a fake man in the co-pilot seat and then he can go whichever way he wants. 


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