Georgia: Feds Deny Relief to HOT Lane Gridlock
The Federal Highway Administration this week turned down the state of Georgia’s request to relax the occupancy requirement on the new Interstate 85 high occupancy toll lanes (HOT lanes) in Gwinett County. In October, the state imposed the toll on the existing carpool lane, raising the number of occupants qualifying for a free ride from two to three.
The initial $5.50 on top of the occupancy change proved too much and traffic ground to a halt in the general purpose lanes while the toll lanes remained relatively unused. In a panic, Governor Nathan Deal (R) moved on October 6 to slash the toll and request a waiver from the Federal Highway Administration to drop the occupancy requirement back down to two.
“The Express Lanes project was never intended to be a revenue generating system,” the agency’s letter stated. “Though we do not expect any excess revenue for several years, a final determination of the use of excess funds has not been made at this time. We are collectively working with other transportation agencies both at the state and federal level to determine how those funds would be utilized in the future, if and when excess revenues occur.”
Chris Haley, a co-founder of the Stolen Lanes group, insists the HOT lanes are making congestion worse, and not better, so the system ought to be scrapped entirely.
“In my opinion, a system to ‘collect money to pay for a system to collect money to pay for a system’ is clearly an example of government run amok,” Haley told TheNewspaper.
SRTA officials touted the issuance of 108,000 Peach Pass toll transponders as evidence that drivers are slowly embracing tolls and insisted that the HOT lanes need more time to prove themselves. Only 23,762 were used on I-85, and the number includes 6231 “toll-exempt” passes, 2761 passes for “emergency” vehicles, and 791 government passes.
[Courtesy: Thenewspaper.com]
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This should be a good lesson on using fees and taxes to change behavior.
OK, so is this something like: The Feds: Some dude that knows how to get stuff into an appropriations bill has a crazy idea. If anyone wants some cash, well, some dude has a crazy idea... Georgia: Did someone say FREE MONEY? The Feds: No. Georgia: I'll take that FREE MONEY!!! The Feds: Here is the cash, but it's not free. Georgia: Thanks for the cash, you socialist scum! Georgia: Wait a second, this crazy idea sucks! The Feds: We told you it was crazy. If it was completely reasonable, we wouldn't have had to give anyone cash to get them to try it. Georgia: If we promise to tone down the socialism rants for a few minutes, can we turn this back into FREE MONEY? The Feds: It was never free money. Georgia: Please? The Feds: No. Georgia: Damn you socialist capitalists!