needless to say, i'm against these damned things...

[acroyear]

Marc Fisher - Exalted HOT Lanes Leave the Average Joe in the Dust - washingtonpost.com:

Nobody asked you, you probably don't like it, and it could well cost you a bundle: Both Maryland and Virginia are charging full-steam ahead with plans to build Lexus lanes, the trendy new way to expand highways with sky-high tolls for the privilege of speeding past the regular Joes over in the slow lane.

Lexus lanes -- the experts say we must eschew such denigration of the affluent and instead call them HOT (high-occupancy toll) lanes -- are widely loathed by actual commuters everywhere they are proposed. Yet they're coming down the pike, and you can't do a thing about it. Why? Because the list of folks who think this is one fantabulous idea reads like a power map of the nation.

Big business loves the Lexus lane because it gets to build new highways, tell the government how high the tolls need to be and then -- ain't life grand? -- keep the toll dollars. Big government loves Lexus lanes because it gets to bow out of the road-building business and still take credit for fixing the transportation mess. Politicians love Lexus lanes because they get to dish out contracts on huge projects, and they needn't even raise taxes to have all that fun.

[...summary of the standard objections...]

But advocates for HOT lanes say these obstacles are easily overcome. All it takes is some expensive marketing (aimed at and -- swallow hard, now -- paid for by the taxpayer) and a cottage industry of consultants who specialize in selling unpopular policies.

[...]

Well, sure, if I really can't afford the HOT lane but the day care is going to charge me an onerous late fee, I might decide I have to hit the express one day. But at $42 a day, not many schoolteachers or secretaries are going to make a habit of it.

[...]

[T]he whole Lexus lane fad is based on a much simpler political concept, the one that says let's just shove it down their throats, and they'll come to like it.

The main reasons I'm against these is 1) how the hell do they enforce HOV commuters to not have to pay while at the same time making entry fast enough to not back up traffic on the onramps to get to them? and 2) I'm against toll roads in general, because they only go up (and up and up and up) in price LONG after the road has actually been paid for; the builders continue to profit on the road while turning around and still billing the state for the maintenance costs.  Accountability is all to easily lost with these types of companies...

Comments

[piraterogue.livejournal.com]

Are they going to limit the number of people who can buy passes? because if they don't there Will be times when the Lexus Lanes are backed up. And if I were paying 42 dollars a day to go the speed limit all the time I would Damn Well SUE if there was ever a time I couldn't. Sue for False Advertising.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I don't mind if the tolls are going towards something the state needs and the fees are not exorbitant. But to pay through the nose to make some corporation's private profit? The HELL!

How long is it going to take for people to realize that this rush to privatization is ruining the country and screwing the citizens?

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

Are they going to limit the number of people who can buy passes?

oh, of course not.

and Zod only knows what'll happen when the accidents start up.