Traffic costs American taxpayers and drivers an estimated $78 billion annually in lost wages and gasoline. Time-of-day pricing could make a serious dent in this waste. The technology is available, in the form of electronic toll collection and license plate photo identification. But sometimes politics are way behind the science.
What's so unpopular about charging more for a service during a period of peak demand? We accept such pricing by airlines, resorts, movie theaters and phone companies. But the concept offends much of the driving public, who resent "Lexus lanes" for the rich.
—Chana R. Schoenberger," Stop and Go," Forbes, May 13, 2002
The
Lexus lane idea began with something called an
HOV lane or high-occupancy vehicle lane. First seen in the late 70s but now a standard feature in most high-traffic cities, an HOV lane is restricted during rush hour to vehicles with multiple occupants. (Stories of drivers propping up dummies in the passenger seat are head-shakingly common. Then there's the phenomenon of
slugging: Qualifying for an HOV lane by picking up one or two extra passengers who are waiting in designated
slug lines.) The HOV lane then became the
HOT —
high-occupancy toll —
lane, which meant that buses, taxis, and the car-pool set where free to use the lane in rush hour, but driver-only vehicles had to pay a toll. (Charging a fee to use a road or highway during peak traffic times is known as
congestion pricing or
time-of-day pricing.) Within minutes (one presumes) of the announcement of the first HOT lane, critics charged that this type of lane would benefit only those who could afford to pay the toll, and the epithetical term
Lexus lane was tossed out in disgust. (Note to would-be neologists: If you want a phrase to take up residence in the language, use alliteration; "BMW lane" just doesn't trip off the tongue as lightly.)
