So when the express lanes are moving, tolls are quite reasonable, but when the express lanes slow down or stop then the tolls start to skyrocket.
Interstate 66 inside of the I-495 Beltway was formerly HOV (2 or more people per vehicle) during rush hour. Even with that restriction, it always backed up when it got close to the Potomac River. The reason for this is that I-66 turns into Constitution Avenue in Downtown DC.
Naturally when they add the HOT option for single drivers, the tolls are going to skyrocket during peak hours.
Bottom line is that until they add additional lanes to I-66 or make additional limited access routes of ingress into DC from Northern Virginia (right now, there are literally only three routes that are "limited access": I-395, I-66, and the George Washington Parkway), that's just going to be how it is.
What’s the big deal? It’s just money. /sarc
I suspect this is a managed situation. Over the past decade in NYC, more streets have been shut down and congestion has increased. Some politicians have brazenly admitted that this is by design....that they want more people riding bicycles and taking public transportation. Meanwhile, tolls rise and hassles increase because, well, people are willing to put up with it. I suspect a privatized roadway would work much better.
Or just reduce the size of the federal government
If you have two people in your car, you ride HOV free. Encourage carpooling.
Funny thing is that taxpayers already paid for the road. Now they’re paying for it again.
I ride HOV 3 on 95 and 395 and don’t pay.
Assuming the above is correct, I'm slightly surprised by the current furor. The HOV lanes were installed years ago to promote carpooling. But carpooling remains the exception, not the rule, so the HOV lanes are hugely underutilized -- or would be, except that a lot of solo commuters have been using them illegally. I gather that it's the illegal freeriders who are complaining now. People with legitimate carpools still don't have to pay the toll.
As I understand it, the current action merely opens the HOV lanes to solo commuters who are willing to pay a fare. This is an expansion of availability, not a contraction. This makes sense. That said, the sticker shock is understandable. The pro-toll people, mostly Democrats, talked in terms of $6-7, and tolls were a tough sell at that price. But when they rolled it out this week, the variable tolls hit $34 the first day and spiked over $40 the second day. Promises made, promises broken, quite in the spirit of Obamacare.
What Virginia really should have done is start with a $6 toll, perhaps with a variable peak at $10 at maximum congestion, and see if that helped. The toll could always be raised more if necessary. I'm not opposed in principle to tolls to ration traffic in high congestion areas, but ya gotta be a little smart in how you roll them out.
Elect democrats, this is what you get.
How do they enforce the HOV rules when the highways are jammed? Robo-cameras?
I thought the HOT (express) lanes were based on the level of congestion in the non-express lanes. The trouble with I-66 is there are no non-express lanes to measure.
I think this is being done to give politicians and senior bureaucrats an easy commute.
So the obvious missing data point is how fast did they get there? If you’re a DC law firm guy you’d make the $40 back in less than 2.5 minutes. It’s all about how much that time wasted/saved is worth it to you. If you took the slow lane and it was 2.5 hours that way the same DC lawyer loses $2250 dollars to save $40.
A thing is worth what another will pay for it.
The toll rises precisely to discourage use, finding the value of contesting-free travel. You want free? it’s over there, not moving.
I cannot conceive of living or working in such an urban morass. Now retied, by choice and effort, I never lived in a town over 100k nor 10 minutes from work. Long commutes, tolls, traffic take away time to live which is far more important than money or position. But that is just my choice and opinion.
How about a toll tag. Pay a reasonable monthly flat fee and use it however many times necessary. But no the greedy corruptocrats wanna milk you for every penny they can.
That fits the very definition of price gouging. But it’s the government, and they use complex math to get the ultimate squeeze, so we’re supposed to be impressed. And, they’re going to spend the money, so just thank them and move along.
was formerly HOV (2 or more people per vehicle) during rush hour.
************
That’s what the sign says at the bottom.......
HOV +2 NO TOLL
I go that way to DC...From I-81...it used to b free all the way...
Price gouging, like our water and sewer bill going up by 95% last month. The answer that was given by the Public Utilities Commission was ,they raised as a government entity it was legal.
One commissioner said “it would make people use less water”!
As I live in an apartment conclave(400+ units) we are billed on a percentage, not metered by apartments. That reasoning is Liberal Speak, ie Bull Shi-!!!
If I were to use 1,000 gallons less per month it would have zero effect on the Communistic billing!
‘.
Reducing Fedzilla to its CONSTITUTIONAL size, scope, power, and cost would also eliminate traffic congestion at “rush” “hour”. Whole agencies could be eliminated, to the betterment of the government and of We the People.
So, what happens when you get on the road and it says the toll is $5, (which is still insane IMO), then by the time you turn off, the toll has risen to $40 or more? Do you get hit with the huge toll or what you entered under? (as if I didn’t know)