There, the roadway will be expanded from three lanes in each direction to five (one carpool and four regular lanes).

Lights ahead as they pulled back into the regular lane showed a group of military vehicles parked on the shoulder.

So why not convert them to regular lanes, easing traffic flows for everyone?

Many trees are removed, leaving regular clear lanes through the section so that the remaining trees have room to expand again.

They say it has gone unused while the regular lanes are clogged with vehicles at bumper-to-bumper speeds.

I suggested that the L.I.E., at the time of construction, could have added two regular lanes in the same place.

"The regular lanes carry 31,000 people, but in 27,500 cars," he said.

Just think how some intelligent advanced planning could have added two more regular lanes for the same money, or less.

As it is, inspectors in the regular lanes typically spend less than a minute to question each person and examine the person's documents.

Commissioner Burns said in an interview that the lanes are "moving almost as many people per hour as the regular lanes."