MILWAUKEE — During peak rush-hour times, before heading onto the freeway you might see a yellow flashing light and a sign that reads "ramp metered when flashing."
Metered ramps are meant to evenly space the number of vehicles merging with traffic already on the interstate. This helps reduce traffic congestion and ease traffic flow at entrance points.
Drivers should follow the meter ramp signal, just as they would with a regular traffic light. At the ramp, pull all the way up to the white line to trigger the sensor in the pavement and wait for the light to turn from red to green.
When ramps have two or more lanes, there might be a dedicated HOV lane or a High Occupancy lane. A HOV lane can be used by any vehicle with two or more people in it, or by motorcycles, buses, and emergency vehicles.
You can tell which lane is the HOV lane by the white diamond painted on the pavement and many entrance ramps will have signs alerting drivers that the left lane is an HOV lane.
HOV lanes are meant to incentivize carpooling and rideshare. However, the HOV driver must still obey the entry ramp signals and their dedicated lane.
Generally, HOV lanes have little to no waiting, but if you're traveling alone in an HOV lane, you can be ticketed for using that lane.
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