Exalted HOT Lanes Leave the Average Joe in the Dust

Nobody asked you, you probably don't like it, and it could well cost you a bundle: Both Maryland and Virginia are charging full-steam ahead with plans to build Lexus lanes, the trendy new way to expand highways with sky-high tolls for the privilege of speeding past the regular Joes over in the slow lane.

Lexus lanes -- the experts say we must eschew such denigration of the affluent and instead call them HOT (high-occupancy toll) lanes -- are widely loathed by actual commuters everywhere they are proposed. Yet they're coming down the pike, and you can't do a thing about it. Why? Because the list of folks who think this is one fantabulous idea reads like a power map of the nation.

Big business loves the Lexus lane because it gets to build new highways, tell the government how high the tolls need to be and then -- ain't life grand? -- keep the toll dollars. Big government loves Lexus lanes because it gets to bow out of the road-building business and still take credit for fixing the transportation mess. Politicians love Lexus lanes because they get to dish out contracts on huge projects, and they needn't even raise taxes to have all that fun.

To make matters even lovelier for the folks in charge, they get to tout the views of experts who consider this the right and smart thing to do. Traffic engineer geeks love HOT lanes because they really do provide a faster trip for those willing to pay whatever it takes to get in the fast lane. Economics geeks love HOT lanes because they're a beautiful example of supply and demand in its essence. Read the professors on this, and HOT lanes start to sound like econ porn.

Even some environmentalists like HOT lanes on the theory that high tolls will discourage driving and that revenue from tolls can be steered toward transit projects.

So if all these smart people love Lexus lanes, what's the problem?

Drivers tend to hate the idea for three reasons: 1) Lexus lanes seem unfair to low- and middle-income commuters who can't afford to shell out the big bucks. In Virginia, where prices could vary according to traffic volume, planners say it could cost up to $42 per day roundtrip between Prince William County and the Pentagon on the HOT lanes scheduled to be built along Interstate 95.

2) Folks tend not to believe the new lanes would really save much time. After all, look how congested HOV lanes have become on I-95.

3) The structure of these deals, with private companies winning the right to profit off traditionally public infrastructure, sets off many people's stench meters. Because public dollars built almost all roads in the first place, exorbitant tolls feel like double taxation.

But in the HOT lanes industry, these hesitations are dismissed as evidence of popular ignorance. The peasants fail to recognize the true magnificence of the gift being bestowed upon them.

Texas A&M researchers studied the public response to HOT lane proposals and concluded that "in all states, public opinion was generally lukewarm."

But advocates for HOT lanes say these obstacles are easily overcome. All it takes is some expensive marketing (aimed at and -- swallow hard, now -- paid for by the taxpayer) and a cottage industry of consultants who specialize in selling unpopular policies. (The consultants say it's easier to overcome opposition where HOT lanes are part of a brand-new highway than where new lanes are added to an existing, toll-free road, as is envisioned in Maryland on I-270 and parts of the Capital Beltway and in Virginia on I-95 and I-395.)