patrick.net

That's the important people lane. If it were any cheaper, the dirty working class could afford it!

The same thing is happening in south Florida. What about all of the taxes I paid for those lanes already. These private companies that run the Sun Pass service should have to send every tax payer their cut of the proceeds. We own it.

What's the point of an express lane if it's not express ?

Maybe they use technology and data to price it at a level that keeps it moving. Probably pretty darn useful for ambulances and other emergency vehicles.

marcus says

Maybe they use technology and data to price it at a level that keeps it moving. Probably pretty darn useful for ambulances and other emergency vehicles.

In South Florida when the rest of the lanes are congested the expresslanes have it worse. As at the end of the expresslane the traffic is bumper to bumper and to a slow crawl.
Those cars at the end of the expresslane has to merge right, but not before coming to a complete stop.

Don't they have seperate tollways in FL. I liked that-you still had the option of a free highway. Not so in the midwest, where a lot of states have paid tollways only.

I'm adding this story to my long list of reasons to avoid northern VA.
Seriously, I avoid northern VA mostly because of it's traffic problems. I once herd a story about a neighborhood that got together to get the county to NOT put a shoulder on their road, since if they made their road nice, it would draw in more traffic. It really IS that bad in northern VA. The rest of the state is nice though.

zzyzzx says

really IS that bad in northern VA

pretty sure that it is worst traffic in the United States. Took me 2 hrs to go from Fredericksburg(which isn't even Northern VA) to Washington one time 2 years back

It's nice to have options.

Do they have a place for people to pull over and panhandle for the funds? That would be a nice touch

Some of the other toll roads near DC are also pretty expensive too. The Dulles toll road and ICC come to mind.

marcus says

Maybe they use technology and data to price it at a level that keeps it moving.

A thread where I agree with something Marcus said, it's a Festivus Day miracle!

I fully support gouging people for services provided there is competition so they can choose to be gouged, or not. Seems to be the case here. If you don't like the hike, don't take the express lanes.

Tenpoundbass,

Dynamic pricing of express lanes has nothing to do with "liberal elitism", it is a right-winger free-market concept

Existence of express lanes has nothing to do with "liberal elitism", it is a right-winger free-market idea.

Yes, influential segments of the Democratic party have become dangerously neoliberal, but that is because they were driven there by stupid voters like YOU that insisted that right-wing policies and free markets was the solution to any and all probems. And now you have the gall to blame the Democrats for it. The people got what they voted for, or got what they deserved by NOT supporting/voting for progressive candidates in the primaries.

For the record, I am vehemently against toll lanes of any kind. Toll lanes are a privatization and profiteering from public lands. HOV lanes I support, but they should be free for carpoolers and mass transit, and not available to anyone else during rush hours.

anonymous says

TPB - not more than 24 months ago or less you tried to convince everyone on here there were less cars on the road based on your keen observations over a one day period.

That was not a one day period. 2 years ago Gas was over the affordability and the used car stock was decimated by the Cash for clunkers. As a result the cheapest cars that were dependable were starting $5K for a 5 or 6 year old car. Then insurance was another factor that prohibited people from buying or leasing cars on credit. Banks don't lend for used cars. I observed over a 5 year period about 40% of the peak volume of traffic on south Florida highways. Now as gas has gotten cheaper again, and used cars are getting more abundant and can no longer feth premium luxury car lot prices. They are getting cheaper, so now between cheaper gas and affordable cars, traffic has picked up. I also produced government data to show how 1/3 gas was consumed.

What has also happened over the last 5 years, is the Greenoscammers has hijacked our tax funded highways with private NGO companies putting up tolls, and chopping up our highways and creating gridlock traffic intetionally to force people to ride public transportation or pay the toll troll.