County closer to HOT lanes

(I can't let this thread die... it's taking over my life....)

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the road does not become a private road; it is still a public thoroughfare. But how public is it when a private company does the following (word for word from the Fluor presentation, by the way,)

"Fluor proposes to: Plan-Design-Finance-Construct-Operate & Maintain The BRT/HOT Lanes System Project at NO COST to VDOT, who remains the Owner"

Well, if a company invests that much in a project, do you think they're going to walk away in a few years? Especially if they're making money? And if they're not making money, don't you think they will appeal to the state for a fare increase? After all, look at the huge investment they made. What legislature would tell Fluor or Clark to hand over the lanes? Or lower the prices? The price will NEVER go down. It will NEVER go away.

The HOV lanes you use now in the evening and on the weekend for free, will COST YOU. Whether VDOT owns the road or not.

I wasn't aware of that situation, Elf. All I can say is I get on I-95 everyday at Rte. 234 and can remember only a couple of times in the past ten years that there was a backup before the HOV entrance at the truck scales. (Of course, I'm talking about once the lanes were extended that far!)

So if there is a pocket of congestion around Fredericksburg, then that seems a different thing altogether from the daily backup which starts around the Purple Heart Bridge and extends down to Dale City. It is regular commuter congestion which HOV lanes are intended to alleviate, not isolated pockets of congestion, which yours is if it doesn't connect to the standing I-95 back-ups.

However, Tdar's point about the future is worth tackling: Stafford and F'burg (and PWC, too,) will only continue to grow. We will eventually need the HOV extended to F'burg. But remember, it took 15 years to get it across the Occoquan. Now we face a long empty stretch across the Marine Corps base. To say that we need to eliminate HOV for everyone on the I-95 corridor and replace it with a toll road just so a private company can provide service to Stafford and F'burg commuters, well, that doesn't seem fair to those of us who are using the HOV now. There's a budget squeeze in Richmond, true, but these things don't last forever; eventually there will be money again for building roads. It's no reason to scrap the world's best HOV lane, throw our hands up in the air, and turn over the future of Virginia's highways to a for-profit company. If you do it today, in your silly impatience, your children and grandchildren will be paying tolls on these roads. It's FOREVER, folks!

As for physics, I forgot to point out the obvious: the flowrate through a system is determined by its narrowest point. Make I-395 twenty lanes wide if you want-- it won't do any good. The Pentagon exit, Memorial Bridge, and the 14th St. Bridge ain't gonna get any wider. They cause backups already. Add more vehicles, as the toll roads will, without question, and the backups will get so bad the system will shut down.

I can offer that Prince William County has many houses for sale, and if you don't like any of them, why, we'll build you another while you wait. Hold on, just let me knock down these trees over here....

Physics?? Now thats a real streach.......nothing in this world is free.

SpongeBob....I did not miss the point, just have a different view. One way or another you will be paying to ride. Maybe it will be more crowded with the HOT lanes maybe not. I have seen various results from the California experiment with them that supports both sides of the arguement. Just like politics.....I can give you any answer you want depending on who is paying me and what outcome you want. I for one support them for the single reason of extending the lanes past F'burg. The only way those lanes are going to be extended is through a private effort. If it is going to cost me to drive on them with other paying customers then so be it.

Bob I agree with you that it works well now but projecting 3 to 5 years in the future what will happen? As far as I can tell, VDOT has its head in the sand and not putting any resources beyond a study to solve the problem. Both ends, the getting into DC part over the bridges and the heading south part near Quantico. I for one would pay higher road taxes as long as I knew they were being used for extending the HOV lanes south. I know that it is going to cost either way. Nothing will be free here.