Starts Jan. 6

METRO raises tolls and tightens carpool restrictions to get HOV traffic moving

Commuters on Houston's busy HOV lanes will see major changes in the new year as METRO attempts to rein in morning traffic with price hikes and tighter restrictions on carpool use.

Starting Monday, solo drivers will pay as much as $2.25 more to use high-occupancy lanes along I-45, US-290 and US-59 during weekday mornings. Carpoolers and motorcyclists — who ride for free on the lanes during specified hours — will enjoy a slighter larger HOV travel window.

Solo drivers will pay as much as $2.25 more to use high-occupancy lanes during the morning rush hour.

“The lanes are first and foremost HOV lanes and we don’t want to compromise the benefit of the HOV system for those who ride the bus, vanpool or carpool,” interim METRO president and CEO Tom Lambert said in a statement.

Speeds along these high-occupancy lanes have declined steadily in recent years, METRO officials told the Houston Chronicle in November.

For example, average morning speeds along the I-45 lanes south of downtown have remained below 45 miles per hour since April 2012, one month after the route opened to solo drivers. All the while, usage has nearly doubled.

“[Toll] lanes were created to fill in the additional capacity and give the public another mobility option, which it will continue to do," Lambert noted. "But we need to tweak the system to ensure traffic flows smoothly.”

METRO hopes to free up congestion on it HOV lanes with the following:

Corridors along I-45, US-290 and US-59 will be restricted to carpool-only traffic a half hour earlier, running from 6:30 to 8 a.m.
The 3+ carpool requirement for US-290 will start 15 minutes earlier, in place from 6:30 to 8 a.m.
Southbound tolls on I-45 and US-59 will increase from $4.50 to $6.50 from 6 to 6:30 a.m.
Tolls on US 290 and I-45 North will increase from $5 to $7.00 from 6 to 6:30 a.m.
Tolls on US-59 North will increase from $2.25 to $4.50 from 6 to 6:30 a.m.

All changes take effect Jan. 6, 2014. For more information visit METRO's HOV/HOT site or contact 713-462-5263.

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Self-driving Waymo robotaxis hit the streets in Houston

Waymo/ Facebook

Waymo is now offering driverless rides to Houstonians.

Waymo will begin dispatching its robotaxis in Houston and four more cities in Texas and Florida, expanding the territory covered by its fleet of self-driving cars to 10 major U.S. metropolitan markets.

The move into Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando, Florida, announced Tuesday, February 24, widens Waymo's early lead in autonomous driving while rival services from Tesla and the Amazon-owned Zoox are still testing their vehicles in only a few U.S. cities.

In contrast, Waymo's robotaxis already provide more than 400,000 weekly trips in the six metropolitan areas where they have been transporting passengers: Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, and Austin.

Waymo's cars soft launched service in San Antonio in November 2025, initially only offering the rides to employees. The company first began testing Alamo City’s roads the previous May as part of a multi-city “road trip” meant to map out roadways and help alleviate local concern over safety and other issues.

Waymo operates its ride-hailing service through its own app in all the U.S. cities except Atlanta and Austin, where its robotaxis can only be summoned through Uber's ride-hailing service.

The expansion into four more markets marks a significant step toward Waymo's goal to surpass 1 million weekly paid trips by the end of 2026. Without identifying where its robotaxis will be available next, Waymo is targeting a list of eight other cities that include Las Vegas, Washington, Detroit, and Boston while signaling its first overseas availability is likely to be London.

To help pay for more robotaxis, Waymo recently raised $16 billion as part of the financial infusion that puts the value of the company at $126 billion. The valuation fueled speculation that Waymo may eventually be spun off from its corporate parent Alphabet, where it began as a secret project within Google in 2009.

Although Waymo is opening up in four more cities, its robotaxis initially will only be made available to a limited number of people with its ride-hailing app in San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, and Orlando before the service will be available to all corners in those markets.

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This article contains additional reporting from CultureMap San Antonio editor Brandon Watson.

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