"Lexus Lanes" get approval in Georgia
04-07-04, 12:33 PM
#1
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"Lexus Lanes" get approval in Georgia
From www.ajc.com:
The Senate gave final approval to a bill today that would allow drivers alone in their cars to pay a toll to drive in high-occupancy vehicle lanes.
The legislation, Senate Bill 489, which was approved 38-0, also allows buses to cross otherwise prohibited lanes to get into HOV lanes.
The House earlier passed a bill that would give transportation officials the green light to convert Georgia’s HOV lanes into high-occupancy toll —- or HOT —- lanes, where solo drivers can cruise for a fee.
The state plans to spend as much as $400,000 this year to determine whether the HOV lanes can accommodate paid traffic. It also will evaluate ways to separate and monitor the lanes.
Georgia officials are taking their lead from Congress, where lawmakers are on the verge of pushing a decade of toll lane experiments into the mainstream.
San Diego and Houston converted HOV lanes into HOT lanes during the 1990s under a federal pilot program, and similar conversions are under way in Denver, Minneapolis and Dallas.
Faced with bulging spending deficits and political unwillingness to raise gasoline taxes, federal lawmakers debating a new multibillion-dollar transportation spending bill now see toll lanes as one way out of the hole.
The most sweeping of the proposals would drastically reduce federal restrictions on the tolling of interstates. Georgia, for example, could toll regular traffic lanes on I-75 in metro Atlanta during peak travel hours to raise cash to resurface the road. It also could build new self-supporting lanes to relieve pressure on crowded I-20. Or it could convert existing HOV lanes into toll lanes during rush hour.
Critics dismiss the idea — also referred to as variable pricing, value pricing or congestion pricing — as just another way for politicians to reach into taxpayers’ pockets. Others call the tollways “Lexus lanes,” saying only the rich would be able to buy their way out of a traffic jam. In San Diego, fees generally range from 50 cents to $4 depending on the hour and traffic. Users there are typically higher-income professionals, according to customer surveys.
— Rhonda Cook, Staff writer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Senate gave final approval to a bill today that would allow drivers alone in their cars to pay a toll to drive in high-occupancy vehicle lanes.
The legislation, Senate Bill 489, which was approved 38-0, also allows buses to cross otherwise prohibited lanes to get into HOV lanes.
The House earlier passed a bill that would give transportation officials the green light to convert Georgia’s HOV lanes into high-occupancy toll —- or HOT —- lanes, where solo drivers can cruise for a fee.
The state plans to spend as much as $400,000 this year to determine whether the HOV lanes can accommodate paid traffic. It also will evaluate ways to separate and monitor the lanes.
Georgia officials are taking their lead from Congress, where lawmakers are on the verge of pushing a decade of toll lane experiments into the mainstream.
San Diego and Houston converted HOV lanes into HOT lanes during the 1990s under a federal pilot program, and similar conversions are under way in Denver, Minneapolis and Dallas.
Faced with bulging spending deficits and political unwillingness to raise gasoline taxes, federal lawmakers debating a new multibillion-dollar transportation spending bill now see toll lanes as one way out of the hole.
The most sweeping of the proposals would drastically reduce federal restrictions on the tolling of interstates. Georgia, for example, could toll regular traffic lanes on I-75 in metro Atlanta during peak travel hours to raise cash to resurface the road. It also could build new self-supporting lanes to relieve pressure on crowded I-20. Or it could convert existing HOV lanes into toll lanes during rush hour.
Critics dismiss the idea — also referred to as variable pricing, value pricing or congestion pricing — as just another way for politicians to reach into taxpayers’ pockets. Others call the tollways “Lexus lanes,” saying only the rich would be able to buy their way out of a traffic jam. In San Diego, fees generally range from 50 cents to $4 depending on the hour and traffic. Users there are typically higher-income professionals, according to customer surveys.
— Rhonda Cook, Staff writer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
04-07-04, 03:42 PM
#4
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You guys HAVE to arrange a meet and all get in that lane and take some pictures to send to the reporter who wrote that story. 
I bet you'd make the paper!
I bet you'd make the paper!
04-07-04, 04:03 PM
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You guys HAVE to arrange a meet and all get in that lane and take some pictures to send to the reporter who wrote that story. I bet you'd make the paper!
hahaah no ****
hahaah no ****
04-07-04, 10:48 PM
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Originally posted by DaveGS4
You guys HAVE to arrange a meet and all get in that lane and take some pictures to send to the reporter who wrote that story. I bet you'd make the paper!
You guys HAVE to arrange a meet and all get in that lane and take some pictures to send to the reporter who wrote that story.
I bet you'd make the paper!
That's an awesome idea! It's a slap in the face to the "nay-sayers" but I love it.
Last edited by LexRX; 04-07-04 at 10:49 PM.
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