Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Roads Feds deny Georgia's request to allow two-person car pools in terrible, terrible HOT lanes
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 8:48 AM
Gov. Nathan Deal's plea to allow two-person car pools to use controversial HOT lanes along I-85 — a move that could curb some of the hate mail his office is surely receiving about the toll project — has been denied, CBS Atlanta reports.
In a letter to state transportation leaders, the U.S. DOT wrote, "The HOT lane has only been operating for a brief period, and we believe it is too early to evaluate its effectiveness at this time."The letter also said the toll rates and drivers' unfamiliarity with the lanes may be contributing to their low use.
Citizen groups that organized on Facebook after finding themselves sitting in I-85 gridlock — which they say has worsened thanks to the pay-to-ride lanes — promise to continue the fight. In other news, sales of pitchforks and rotten vegetables perfect for throwing at the powers-that-be have gone way up. Buy buy buy!
Note: This post has been altered to correct an error.
Comments (18)
Showing 1-18 of 18
Taking away the two-person eligibility is giving the big fat finger to the public as well as undermining the green benefit.
Idiot technocrats.
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Ya, it seems to make sense to match the lane requirements ITP in the OTP HOT lane.
As for "Failure". I'm not so sure that's warranted. Looking at the usage data that peach pundit puts up every now and then, the ride times the HOT lanes provide are predictable and shorter than the general use lanes. It sounds to me like they're meeting their goals.
I don't ride on 85 because I'd sooner die than live in Gwinnett, but I thought it prudent to sign up for peachpass because I'd like to avail myself of the lane if I ever need it—and ya, signing up is a drag. I don't see a way to streamline it much more than they have, though. drivers are going to just have to adjust. Success and failure shouldn't be measured by whether GDOT has managed to make the tea party patriots happy.
I actually like seeing all the backed up traffic on the news in the morning. All those less government republicans continue to vote for more of it! Brilliant!
I thought three person car pools was the current rule. How many count as a carpool now?
Mikelark,
The perils of writing blog posts quickly in the morning without coffee. Thanks for pointing that out. I've corrected the error.
Suck it long and hard Georgia DOT. And yes, dumb-ass suburbanites did vote for the party that has perpetual control of the State and appointed the DOT "visionaries."
Oy: Nobody gets to vote on a number of things, at all levels of government. Its a republic. Is that criticism meant to undermine HOT lanes?
"Nobody got to vote on HOT lanes."
not everything is a referendum. DOT doesn't require votes for long-term operations, which is a good thing
ah dirn't vote fer it, luella! it must be onna dem socalist-type things what you hear bout on the lightnin' box!
"not everything is a referendum. DOT doesn't require votes for long-term operations, which is a good thing"
I know that, Sparky, I was just pointing out to the previous poster the error of his slander.
Zed, 'round here they remember it's a republic only when it's convenient.
The GA DOT has been dirty forever. I only respect them when I'm driving up north on crappy roads. Then they look pretty good.
"I know that, Sparky, I was just pointing out to the previous poster the error of his slander."
my bad, i just glaze over half the posts here because they're not worth reading
I only remember its a republic when it suits me too. I think its part and parcel of politics in America. ;)
Its funny, something just came up in the last edition of the economist... letters, I think. Burke campaigned on a platform of not listening to his constituency— favoring to vote for the betterment of the country as he saw fit. That's the essence of what representational democracy is, according to conservatives. They don't mention, (this letter states), that Burke was then voted out of office, compelling him to amend his views, or at least how he expressed them on the campaign trail. ;)
And ya, any Georgian, from a libertarian to a statist, ought to agree that GDOT is pretty dysfunctional.
Isn't this an example of the Holy Grail of Republicanism whereby we make government operate more like a business? Or is that only the case when such projects are more popular with the public, in which case HOT Lanes are an example of government socialism running roughshod over Georgia's commuting citizen-patriots.
I'm so confused...
the only place i can find more of this letter is in Jim Galloway's AJC blog. It confusingly says that the request was made due to "repeated backups in the new toll lanes" and yet they're saying people aren't using them enough? weird.
Burke's greatest work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OKAlBC-XWQ
The DOT was even more powerful in the old days. No pol would go up against them because their county would never see another asphalt truck for years. I think this situation is an example of the perils of an unaccountable bureaucracy. There is too much of a direct effect on citizens for a project like this to be approved by appointed bureaucrats only.
Occasionally, the republic requires some democracy.
Once you join masses of people in connecting your livelihood to a relatively thin strip of highway, what exactly is the government going to do for you? People did make a free choice in where to live and invest. As things stand now the government is merely trying to keep traffic flowing.
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