Britain's government was set to unveil plans to allow car drivers carrying one or more passengers during the morning rush-hour use of their own motorway lanes in a bid to cut congestion and pollution, a newspaper said Sunday.
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling was to make a statement on "high occupancy vehicles" within days, a spokesman at the Department for Transport said in response to the report.
Pilot schemes were set to be planned at various points on the busy M1 motorway that links London and Leeds, in northern England, and the M3 between the capital and Southampton on England's south coast, The Observer newspaper said.
Drivers travelling alone who entered the special lanes would face fines, the weekly said.
In the United States, up to three million people a day use such lanes to commute into big cities including Los Angeles and Washington, The Observer said.