Reason Writers Around Town: Bob Poole and Shirley Ybarra on How Toll Roads Will Reduce Traffic Congestion

In the DC Examiner, Reason Foundation Director of Transportation Robert Poole and Reason Foundation Senior Policy Analyst Shirley Ybarra explain how converting carpool lanes to toll lanes will reduce congestion in Washington, DC and Virginia.

Read all about it here.

Comments

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Reason Foundation Director of Transportation Robert Poole and Reason Foundation Senior Policy Analyst Shirley Ybarra....

these titles are too long. you should call them Czars.

[Tulpa]

But what about the poor single mothers who have to sit in traffic in the other lanes?

But what about the poor single mothers who have to sit in traffic in the other lanes?

They should bow before their speedier Lords traveling in the lanes they paid for with their gas taxes.

[guy in the back row]

They should bow before their speedier Lords traveling in the lanes they paid for with their gas taxes.

But the single mom has paid the gas tax, unless she got some bootleg gas somewhere.

It's the income tax that she coasts on, presumably.

[Rich]

But what about the poor single mothers who have to sit in traffic in the other lanes?

Isn't that what the HOV lanes are for?

[R C Dean]

But the single mom has paid the gas tax,

Not as much as her boss in the Maybach in the HOV lane, with its single-digit MPG.

[Paul]

But what about the poor single mothers who have to sit in traffic in the other lanes?

Isn't that what the HOV lanes are for?

I think the idea is that HOV lanes are 'free' as they are now. The single mom can take advantage of the HOV lane by the mere fact she has a child. With the toll road instituted, she won't be able to take advantage of them because she can't afford to pay the toll. Now she's stuck in steerage with the rest of us.

However, it's a weak argument because there are places that operate entirely on a toll structure (and I'm assuming poor, single mom's live in these areas) and somehow they manage.