Reserving interstate lanes for the affluent
There has always been something disturbingly elitist about the idea of HOT lanes, also known as high-occupancy toll lanes, also known as Lexus lanes.
The notion that some Americans would be able to drive on uncrowded lanes reserved for those who could pay for the privilege while drivers in the next lane are condemned to bumper-to-bumper traffic — it just doesn’t sit right. It brings to mind that line from “Animal Farm,” about all animals being equal, but some are more equal than others.
The idea is particularly galling if taxpayers who are stuck in traffic are forced to pay for construction of the HOT lanes that they can’t afford to use. And let’s make that clear — the whole idea is to make HOT lanes so expensive that most people won’t be able to use them regularly.
That just doesn’t seem right.
Having said that, however, the concept of HOT lanes does have legitimate, practical applications. For example, new lanes that are built specifically as HOT lanes and financed through tolls collected on those lanes don’t raise the same fairness concerns. In that case, the infrastructure is being paid for by the people using it, and that’s fine.
Here in Georgia, the state Department of Transportation is proposing a second approach. It wants to take existing HOV lanes along a stretch of I-85 — one lane in each direction — and convert them to tolled HOT lanes. Car pools could still use the lanes for free, but single drivers wanting to avoid traffic would also be able to buy their way into the lanes. The toll would vary; in times of heavy traffic, the cost would rise to discourage use and thus keep traffic flowing freely.
Potentially, that’s a useful idea. According to Ginger Gooden, a research engineer at the Texas Transportation Institute, allowing motorists to buy their way into under-used HOV lanes can speed travel, raise revenue and even decrease congestion in remaining general-purpose lanes. She cites studies of such conversions in Seattle and Minneapolis that have documented an improvement in traffic flow even in untolled lanes.
However, the Georgia DOT has more controversial ideas as well. On the Downtown Connector and a stretch of I-20 inside the Perimeter, it proposes to convert both an existing HOV lane and an existing general-purpose lane into toll-only HOT lanes.
If that proposal is approved, it would take an already overburdened highway and shrink its availability even further to the general public. Those lanes — infrastructure already bought and paid for by taxpayers — would be reserved for the exclusive use of those able to pay for that luxury.
According to DOT projections, someone using the high-priced toll lanes during rush hour in 2030 would be able make the 21-mile trip from Pleasant Hill Road to downtown in just 30 minutes. Not bad.
But for the rest of you, it would take 90 minutes.
According to Gooden, no other state has taken the step of converting existing general-purpose lanes to HOT lanes; in fact, she knows of no other states seriously considering such a step.
In his visit to Atlanta last week, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood also expressed surprise the idea was being proposed. He predicted that once people understand the proposal, public outrage would build pretty quickly.
That’s certainly been the pattern here in Georgia. A few years ago, when the DOT proposed converting Ga. 316 to a toll road, the political backlash forced the department to withdraw the idea. To calm the outrage, it also adopted a policy outlawing the conversion of existing lanes to privately financed toll lanes. That policy remains in effect, at least so far.
Overall, the state DOT is studying construction of a whole network of “managed lanes;” if approved, it would represent the department’s most significant transportation investment in metro Atlanta of the next 20 years.
In a presentation to the state Transportation Board last week, DOT planning director Todd Long estimated the cost of the network at $16.2 billion. Private investors would contribute almost $9 billion in return for a cut of the toll revenue, leaving taxpayers to pay the remaining $7 billion.
Given that Georgia is expected to have only $20 billion to spend statewide over the next 20 years, that $7 billion would represent the lion’s share of state spending in metro Atlanta. Spending it on a project that would speed travel for only a relative few makes no sense to me.
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242 comments Add your comment
TnGelding
September 25th, 2009
7:09 am
USinUK
September 25th, 2009
6:42 am
I see the forecast, but don’t see the rain.
Have a great day!
Taxpayer
September 25th, 2009
7:09 am
Then the United States will die, yay!
Well, that was your plan all along. Right. You right wing nutter butters have been trying for decades to spend and borrow this country into the ground. Congratulations.
TnGelding
September 25th, 2009
7:25 am
Taxpayer
September 25th, 2009
7:09 am
They haven’t succeeded just yet. But we senior citizens are going to have to step up to the plate along with the filthy rich.
Joey
September 25th, 2009
7:26 am
Jay;
I have a request. Solely for my benefit. Well there might be others who would like it also.
Could you arrange to post the national and world political (health care, Afghanistan, Iran, Repub-Dem-Con-Lib) stuff in the afternoon and evening. Post the local politics, transportation, water, development stuff in the morning.
Thank you in advance for considering this.
Joey.
USinUK
September 25th, 2009
7:27 am
Taxpayer –
“Well, that was your plan all along. Right.”
this reminds me of a ludicrous argument the mister and I had about a year a go … he got upset that I put regular cheese on his turkey burger rather than low-fat, yucky, plastic cheese, and accused me of trying to kill him. I told him “if I was really trying to kill you, it would be faster and more reliable way than hoping your cholesterol rises and causes a hear attack in 20-30 years”
if a group was REALLY trying to destroy a nation quickly, then the best way is to do all you can to pi$$ off the rest of the world by doing something like invading a country on false pretenses, using generals who say that they’re doing god’s work killing people of a different religious persuasion. that way, you’re not only angering the extremists and breeding more terrorists, you’re also wrecking the economy at the same time. job done.
TnGelding
September 25th, 2009
7:29 am
Joey
September 25th, 2009
7:26 am
…and let Palin go!
Ben
September 25th, 2009
7:37 am
Wow, nothing will make you happy. Almost all your columns are about how the rich should be made to pay for everyone else. So now there’s a suggestion out there to get the rich to pay for road repair and construction, and that’s evil, too. What will make you happy, Bookman? Simply taking every penny over $100,000 that anyone in the country has, and giving to people who haven’t earned it?
USinUK
September 25th, 2009
7:37 am
hey, while we’re doing requests …
… can you set the traveling music to Greenwich Mean Time?? I’m sure folks who are leaving early on a Friday in Atlanta want to see the tunes posted at noon, anyhow …
… oh, and be sure to post a food-related topic around lunchtime (we’re going to talk about food, anyway, so you might as well) …
… and I think Bosch and Kam would like a little more soccer-related content.
Jay
September 25th, 2009
7:39 am
Joey, I could certainly try and would be willing to do so, although the timing wouldn’t always work out. But I’m curious as to your reasoning. Why would that be an improvement?
Jay
September 25th, 2009
7:43 am
Almost all of my columns are on that topic Ben? Really? Care to cite one of the last, say 10 or 15?
And if you read more carefully, this proposal is about taking general taxpayer money to build lanes exclusively for the rich. As I stated, if these projects are self-sustaining out of the revenue they generate, I have no problem. Go for it.
But in this case, they would take $7 billion in taxes we all pay at the gas pump — $7 billion that would represent about all the state investment Atlanta’s going to get in the next 20 years — and spend it to speed the Lexus drivers to their destination.
TnGelding
September 25th, 2009
7:45 am
Ben
September 25th, 2009
7:37 am
No, you can keep your wealth…..for now. We just want everything over $250k you earn each year!
TnGelding
September 25th, 2009
7:50 am
Folks, our reading and comprehension skills are atrocious. Maybe we’ve been listening to too many talking heads?
AmVet
September 25th, 2009
8:00 am
TnGelding, comments like the one at 7:37 among many others here on a daily basis, are in my experience, not due to a lack of reading skills, but due to a mind that is already shut down. And has been for a long, long time.
it is part and parcel of the neo-con bumper sticker mentality
The type of mind that sees innumerable, imaginary bogeymen EVERYWHERE. The mind that was long ago made up and NO amount of countermanding data, information, facts, evidence or corroboration will open even slightly…
It is a symptom of the far right’s outdated and unevolved demagoguery and a manifestation of being a die-hard reactionary…
Joey
September 25th, 2009
8:00 am
My reason is purely selfish. I am better able to participate in the mornings and I enjoy the local subjects more.
It seems that in discussions of local issues most posters here are not as committed to their opinions, therefore more open discussion, even learning, takes place. But on the national and world political front almost everyone has established a position and has dug in for the long haul. People are just sniping at each other from their bunkers.
Gail
September 25th, 2009
8:16 am
The way I see it is the ones who can afford the HOT lanes have already paid more in taxes anyway so why is that not fair? Also, while taxpayers pay for the roads, some people pay no taxes and ride on the roads. And no – I will not be paying to ride in the HOT lane.
Jay
September 25th, 2009
8:25 am
No Gail, the roads are built largely on gasoline taxes, taxes that every driver pays and that they pay in roughly equivalent amounts. The driver of a $50,000 car pays about the same in gas taxes as the driver of a $5,000 car.
But in this case, the driver of the $5,000 car will be paying taxes to build something reserved only for those more wealthy than he is.
Turd Ferguson
September 25th, 2009
8:26 am
“just doesn’t sit right. It brings to mind that line from “Animal Farm,” about all animals being equal, but some are more equal than others.”
Truth is we are not all equal, never will be and no amount of govt intervention/brainwashing will make it so.
Jay
September 25th, 2009
8:29 am
Turd just ripped up the Declaration of Independence, the founding document of our nation.
Good work.
Algonquin J. Calhoun
September 25th, 2009
8:32 am
Selling tax payers the right to drive in expeditious lanes their taxes have been used to construct could only come from Republinazis. It’s ridiculous and probably unconstitutional. Of course, many bloggers on here will express support for it even though they can’t afford to buy a lane-use pass.
Mel
September 25th, 2009
8:41 am
Enter your comments hereLooks like you are caught in a liberal catch-22, Jay. Here’s an opportunity for the state to collect more tax money from higher wage earners (ie-liberal’s wet dream)and possibly reduce congestion on the highways. But in true illogial liberal fashion, you manage to turn it into a class war.
The writers of the liberal playbook are sliming right now.
SP
September 25th, 2009
8:54 am
Why can’t we just add the option of HOT to the existing HOV lanes? Those evil rich people can buy an EZ pass type device that would bill them for being in that lane, and those poor trodden down folks could still use the HOV without having to pay.
The only big problem the libs will have with this is that this would be a voluntary tax on those evil rich, and it wouldn’t be taken from them by force.
lovelyliz
September 25th, 2009
9:14 am
Public Option’s Doing Swell Trent Lott from Missippi didn’t have flood insurance either. He just got the GOP led Congress to pass legislation that would allow him to retroactively pay premiums.
Del
September 25th, 2009
9:23 am
Looks like Dr. Public Option Doing ran out for brain surgery followed by a Kool Aid IV and will return later to provide more facts from sources LOL
Joan
September 25th, 2009
9:38 am
Well, all the gripes about the taxpayer funding the HOT lanes for the privileged is a joke. In fact, it is the so called privileged that pay 90% of the taxes anyway. They ought to just have to show their tax returns indicate they paid over $100,000 per year in taxes, to use the lanes. Let the entitlement people whine.
AlohaGator
September 25th, 2009
9:49 am
I’m not sure who I agree with today…..
The idea of “Lexus” lanes in metro Atlanta really makes me angry. This is a terrible idea. HOV lanes for carpoolers, hybrids and motorcycles is fine with me. We’ve had them here for years and i use them every once in a while. But…… When folks start talking about converting existing lanes on already overcrowded highways my blood starts to boil.
BAD IDEA !!!!!
Worse idea = Footbal HOF paid for by taxpayers! Who is so dumb they think this is a good idea?
Peace ya’all ….. I’m too beat up this week to fight.
Go Gators
rappaport
September 25th, 2009
9:54 am
HOT lanes won’t fix traffic problems. As a regular commuter, I see 2 major causes of “daily” jams: merging traffic and drivers who don’t know the rules of the road. For the first, the DOT should focus efforts on lengthening merge lanes and installing mechanisms that keep drivers from immediately merging into traffic, which just slows everyone down. Relative to second, the overhead traffic warning signs could be used for driver instructional messages, such as: keep your eyes on the road, use your blinker, stay right unless passing, etc.
Mike
September 25th, 2009
10:08 am
Well, let’s just tax those evil rich folks to make poor-people only lanes, where anyone who’s not driving a dented, smoke-belching beater gets ticketed. That way, we can kick the rich in the teeth, as is the New American Way AND squeeze the middle class at the same time! Double score!
Michael G.
September 25th, 2009
10:20 am
I don’t get it. GDOT is right about toll lanes, but wrong about the location. Put them on all the interstates leading into the state and charge $2 per vehicle for people driving through the state of Georgia on I’s 75, 85, 95, and 20. That would be 8 tolls and it would be based on models already in place in states like Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, W. Virginia, that have put toll roads on existing interstate highways.
SOUTHERN ATL
September 25th, 2009
10:21 am
I’m Looking forward to the next election of the “NEW STATE GOVENOR” and administration…Georgia is guaranteed to turn BLUE in 2010!!
Del
September 25th, 2009
10:48 am
South Atlanta,
Only in your dreams
Duane
September 25th, 2009
10:53 am
I’d rather that money be spent on extending Marta to pleasant hill rd
SOUTHERN ATL
September 25th, 2009
11:07 am
I know that I am off topic on this one but here’s a little COMEDY to get your weekend started….gotta love COLBERT talking about RACISM!!!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/25/blackwashing-colbert-unve_n_299601.html
Robyn
September 25th, 2009
12:00 pm
The affluent pay more than their share in this country. The freeloaders pay little to none. Let them take the long way and stay out the way of the producers.
Neoconservative
September 25th, 2009
12:35 pm
I think we should have a fast left wing lane and a fast right wing lane. That would make independents slow lanes make up their minds–mabe!
Ragnar Danneskjöld
September 25th, 2009
12:47 pm
I think we would all agree that an interstate lane for the affluent is morally wrong, as it is effectively a self-imposed tax on the rich, much as the Georgia lottery is a self-imposed tax on the mentally deficient.
uga_b
September 25th, 2009
1:36 pm
Economically speaking, it costs more for higher salaried people to be stuck in traffic. Lines are sometimes used to offset cheaper prices.
In the end this is just another government revenue grab, which Bookman should ultimately support as a rule.
rich
September 25th, 2009
8:23 pm
Protest the HOT lane. Drive 55!! (in it)!!
Road Hog
September 30th, 2009
5:25 pm
Why not just post the sign that says “Whites Only This Lane” and be done with it?
PixelDust
November 3rd, 2009
5:32 pm
best idea would be for comapnies to have shifts that don’t start and end all at near the same time. Rush hour would just be a drive to hour. If not every guy/gal that works had to be at work at the same time we would not have this mess we have. No matter how many lanes you put in, your still going to have rush hour traffic!
PixelDust
November 3rd, 2009
5:38 pm
if we all worked round the clock people driving from here to there would be more spread out. If off days were not just weekends so that events were held at all times of day/night and week we would not have such jam ups of everyone trying to get to one place all at same time. But who wants to work all times of night and weekends? Not the corporate big wigs, and they don’t want to have to drive with everyone else either, lets just buy them a helicopter to get to and from work in and be done with it.
PixelDust
November 3rd, 2009
5:44 pm
and while we are at it we can give them there own personal air space also. Its only money, and tax payers will always come up with it if we keep asking more from them. If the cost of the paying lanes cuts into the big wigs pockets i am sure they can cut some of it’s employees under him/her to be able to continue to afford to pay for the traffic free lane…
Leave our money alone and quit spending it for a while! Good gosh.. get a grip and open your eyes. We have spent enough. If it takes hours to get to work, leave earlier and have time to get there…not build more roads causing us to work more hours to pay the taxes… my pockets are not any deeper than they were 20 years ago, and i have nothing left to give!
KL
November 5th, 2009
12:44 pm
What’s the point of adding lanes if there are only a limited number of exits…you end up going into a bottleneck and traffic is still slow. Why don’t people stop thinking about adding lanes and think about investing money on improving and expanding MARTA or the bus system. The traffic problem is not going to be solved by adding lanes, it’s only going to delay the inevitable; the only way to solve the traffic problem is to reduce the number of cars on the street.