HOT Lanes: A Question

[mike7586]

HOT lane usage triples in first month - Atlanta Business Chronicle

"The average toll paid Thursday was $1 compared to a high of $2.35 charged Oct. 4. The highest amount charged for the entire 16-mile stretch from Old Peachtree Road to Chamblee-Tucker Road was $1.95 during both the morning and afternoon rush hours Thursday, the Gwinnett paper reported."

So since the rate was lowered the first week, nobody has paid more than $2 to use the entire stretch of road... so about 12 cents a mile. Lane usage has also tripled and continues to grow.

[jazzcat22]

Thanks, Mike. That's what I thought. She must have seen 75 cents posted and assumed that it was 75 cents a mile for the entire way. (Then she insisted she checked that she got home and saw $30 had been deducted.) It's strange that if she thought she would be charged 75 cents a mile and (understandably) didn't want to pay it, that she would have gotten into the HOT lane, but as Jim Morrison so eloquently said, "people are strange!"

[testa50]

Originally Posted by mike7586

HOT lane usage triples in first month - Atlanta Business Chronicle

"The average toll paid Thursday was $1 compared to a high of $2.35 charged Oct. 4. The highest amount charged for the entire 16-mile stretch from Old Peachtree Road to Chamblee-Tucker Road was $1.95 during both the morning and afternoon rush hours Thursday, the Gwinnett paper reported."

So since the rate was lowered the first week, nobody has paid more than $2 to use the entire stretch of road... so about 12 cents a mile. Lane usage has also tripled and continues to grow.

Yeah, it seems like the initial implementation was quite awful, but in the long run the lanes will probably be fine.

Since cars operate most efficiently around 40-45 mph anyways, the real cost of getting in the HOT lane could be quite marginal if it's only $.12/mi in tolls. I think that price will prove the be unsustainably low once people begin to get in the habit of using it. I mean, if someone spends an additional 20 minutes in traffic in order to save $2, that would imply they value their time at <$6 an hour. Which is of course absurd for most people.