The luxury lane: high rollers only.

​If you've got money to burn and are dying for yet one more way to let the world know, you have it: You can cruise at high speed past all the traffic-besieged hoi polloi solo and not risk a ticket.

Metro has announced the implementation of High Occupancy Toll lanes, which essentially means you can ride in the county's HOV lanes as long as you have an EZ Tag.

"The price of the tolls, ranging from $1 to $4.50, will be based on the time of day and level of congestion, and will be posted in advance of the entrance ramps," Metro says.

So if you're stuck in traffic you'll have an opportunity for an in-car impulse buy: Fork over a couple of bucks to go HOV, or hope things get better in Poor Folks Land?

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Get used to it.

​If your weekend plans include using the Southwest Freeway inside the Loop, we're sorry for you.

TxDOT is once again planning major closures along the southbound lanes between Montrose and Kirby, and little good can come of it (except, of course, repairs that might prevent catastrophe).

"The closures are necessary for crews to replace expansion joints on the US 59 Southwest Freeway southbound overpass at Kirby," TxDOT says. "Motorists should expect delays and may want to consider an alternate route if possible."

The details:

Starting Friday, December 9 at 9 p.m. until Monday, December 12 at 5 a.m. three left lanes of US 59 the Southwest Freeway will be closed. In addition, the northbound and southbound u-turns at Kirby will be closed on Friday, December 9, at 9 p.m. until Monday, December 12 at 5 a.m. Motorists can u-turn via the signalized intersection.

Two southbound mainlanes on US 59 Southwest Freeway will be open at all times and police officers will be on site to assist with traffic control.

Lotsa luck out there, drivers.

It won't look like this -- because there's no trees.

​The Southwest Freeway near Kirby can often be a mess, but that condition will be all but guaranteed this weekend.

Major repairs are scheduled, resulting in multiple closures. Let's let TxDOT give you the ugly details:

Starting Friday, November 18 at 9 p.m. until Monday, November 21 at 5 a.m. four alternating lanes of US 59 the Southwest Freeway will be closed. There will also be one right lane of the US 59 Southwest Freeway southbound exit to Shepherd/Greenbriar closed on Friday, November 18 at 9 p.m. through Monday, November 21 at 5 a.m. The US 59 Southwest Freeway southbound entrance ramp from Shepherd/ Greenbriar will also be totally closed on Friday, November 18 at 9 p.m. through Monday, November 21 at 5 a.m. Motorists can detour to Kirby Entrance Ramp to enter onto the US 59 Southwest Freeway. In addition, the northbound and southbound u-turns at Kirby will be closed on Friday, November 18 at 9 p.m. through Monday, November 21 at 5 a.m. Two lanes on US 59 Southwest Freeway will be open at all times and police officers will be on site to assist with traffic control.

TxDOT says drivers "may want to consider an alternate route if possible." Roger that.

Russel Gonzalez meets a helpful visitor -- 14 years apart.

​One day in 1997, then 25-year-old Russel Gonzalez was speeding down the Southwest Freeway near the Summit when near-disaster struck -- he ran over a piston or something and his tire blew out.

Gonzalez eased his disabled car over into the inside breakdown lane, got out and popped his trunk. As he was rooting around in the back, it was slowly dawning on him that he had a big problem. He can't recall now exactly what it was; either his spare was messed up or he didn't have a jack, but he was starting to realize he was stuck on the wrong side of about five lanes of speeding traffic with no way to get out of there.

Right about then, an old brown Honda Accord pulled in behind him. A middle-aged black guy was behind the wheel. He stopped his car and just sat there, waiting for Gonzalez to approach.

Gonzalez did so and asked him for a ride to a gas station. The guy just nodded, and Gonzalez got in. As the man eased the car back into the main lanes, he barely even looked at Gonzalez. It was then and only then that Gonzalez thought that he might have made the worst mistake of his life.

"I absolutely thought he might have been a serial killer," he says now. "But by that time I had already committed to getting in the car with him to go to the gas station. I was like, 'Holy shit, what if he just keeps driving?' He was just so quiet and he just looked straight ahead the whole time. I was thinking, 'Oh shit, this is just weird.'"

The man did say enough for Gonzalez to pick up what he thought was a Nigerian accent, and Gonzalez noticed that there was a Bible on his dashboard. The man took Gonzalez to a gas station, where Gonzalez was able to phone a tow-truck driver buddy of his to come haul his car out of danger. He thanked his mystery angel one last time, and again, the man just nodded and drove away.

"I was just like, 'Holy shit, that was creepy," Gonzalez remembers. "Of course, that burned a memory in my head."

Fast forward to this past Sunday.

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From a TranStar PowerPoint on the system

​The Web site Jalopnik, home to all things automotive, takes a lengthy and glowing look today at TranStar's use of Bluetooth devices to track traffic jams.

"[N]o one has tried snatching real-time data directly from Bluetooth devices along a network of sensors the way Houston's cutting edge TranStar traffic monitoring center is currently doing it," the site says.

It includes, of course, some geeky info that we glazed over, but the essence is TranStar tracks a Bluetooth between two fixed points and determines how fast a car is moving. ("[T]he system learns when a Starbucks or Verizon store is nearby skewing the data," the story says.)

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Everyone off the highway.

​If your evening-commute plans include traveling west on 290, we pity you.

A major accident has had the road completely shut down for much of the afternoon, and TranStar is now saying things won't improve for rush hour.

All vehicles are being steered off the freeway at 43rd and using the service road to Bingle, where they are allowed to re-enter. It sounds a whole lot smoother than it is.

You might try the Katy to the Beltway, or take I-45 to 249. But wherever you go, it won't be pretty.

A preview, possibly

​More fun from TxDOT this weekend, as the Southwest Freeway and the West Loop in Bellaire experience major closures.

You won't be able to get on the Southwest Freeway in either direction if you're going north on the West Loop, but you'll have plenty of time to ponder options because two northbound lanes will be closed from Bissonnet and 59. (Just for fun, the on-ramp from Bissonnet to the Loop will be closed, too.)

Think you can avoid this by just staying off the Loop in that area. Not so fast. ("Not so fast" is also the speed you'll be driving.) Three southbound lanes of 59 will be closed from Kirby to the Loop. You'll be down to one lane, so pretty much the entire Southwest Freeway inside the Loop should be avoided this weekend.

The repairs are scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. tonight, with the lanes reopening no later than 5 a.m. Monday.

One block, big troubles

​For a week or so -- and for the next three months -- drivers have been dealing with the closure of Smith Street between Franklin and Congress while TxDOT does some bridge repair.

One block: No big deal, right?

It turns out that block of Smith Street is apparently the most crucial block in all of downtown blockdom. People trying to get downtown from I-10, from the I-45 HOV lane, drivers trying to get on the highway, they're all frantically switching lanes, if "frantically" can be used for slow-motion cutting into a long line of standing cars waiting to move forward on a ramp.

Luckily, the TxDOT solutions for the situation are horribly complicated. How complicated? The easiest one ends like this: "This is a very direct route but it will also be used by many so getting through that first light may take a couple of cycles."

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my290.com

​Anyone coming south on 290 trying to get on I-10 knows what a hassle it can be: You come in right at the point where the North Loop becomes the West Loop, then you have to handle all the lane-switching that goes on between people headed Galleria-way and those, like you, trying to just get to the Katy.

Good news: A magic-carpet dedicated ramp will take drivers directly from 290 to I-10, bypassing the Loop.

Bad news: It's going to take awhile.

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Happy Motoring!!!

​The West Loop through the Galleria area can go crazy at seemingly random times of the day, but this weekend promises to be special.

From 9 p.m. tonight to 5 a.m. Monday, TxDOT is offering oodles of traffic fun for anyone trying to negotiate the area.

To begin with, the ramp from the West Loop southbound to the Southwest Freeway northbound will be completely closed.

Don't worry, though -- the alternative sounds completely painless:

All traffic destined to US 59 Southwest Freeway northbound from IH 610 West Loop southbound will be detoured to the Bissonnet Exit. Motorists can then u-turn at Bissonnet to re-enter IH 610 West Loop northbound to access US 59 Southwest Freeway northbound.

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