This week, Port Authority staff presented the agency’s commissioners with a plan to study ways to get more out of the Lincoln Tunnel’s jammed lanes. The main problem facing tunnel managers is that the Exclusive Bus Lane cannot fit more buses.

Adding a second bus lane to the tunnel’s peak direction will be tough because it will displace car traffic, but there isn’t much choice without closing off the growing New Jersey-Manhattan commuter market. The PA appears to want to ease into the second bus lane by allowing some cars to use it, at least during the years before it fills with buses. But they would be subject to a toll surcharge to prevent the lane from being overwhelmed with car traffic.

That would be a variation on the "high occupancy toll" (HOT) lanes developed in California, where some drivers pay to use uncongested toll lanes adjacent to clogged-up freeways. An interesting aspect of the PA study will be its estimates of the market for such a lane, with toll rates over and above today’s $5 peak E-ZPass toll, and how much the surcharge will have to be to prevent the uncongested lane from becoming oversubscribed by drivers for whom time is money.