Looking for Allies to Battle HOT

Umm. Yes. Are you saying I'm fighting only for myself? Well, to mirror your logic...

Of course I am!

I am only interested in preserving MY access to the HOV lanes. I don't care if they charge everyone else. As long as I get to keep the exemption I was personally awarded as a low-mileage invertebrate, what do I care if everyone else has to make way for me?

I want to ride alone in the lanes, and I deserve to because I had the wherewithal to undergo an invertebra-octomy. Anyone else who wants to ride alone need only have the same done to them.

Of course, after everyone has their endo-skeleton removed, my private and personal road might get a little crowded... but I don't really care to think about the future. Just about me, myself, and I.

SluDge, you better wake up buddy.

The remote-monitoring and tolling system Fluor/Transurban uses has no, repeat NO, means of determining the number of people in a vehicle.

There is NO WAY for them to distinguish between your carpool and NoSUV's solo-driving hybrid.

The toll booth will charge his checking account as he drives under it, and it will charge yours, too, because it cannot tell if you are a carpool or not.

You WILL have to pay. They know it, but are hoping to muddy the waters until it is too late.

There are other reasons for your carpool to oppose toll roads, but I've gone on at length about them on other threads and everyone is bored with me.

The obvious point here is that they never explain how they are going to do this, while they have simultaneously been quoted in the Post saying the real trick will be limiting carpools to ensure enough space for paying customers.

This is a 30+ mile long, remotely managed, multiple-exit/entrance, high-speed multiple tolling point facility they are proposing. Ever heard of one like it? No, because this will be the most complex variable toll highway on earth. Really.

The key issue is that there is no technology available that can distinguish between a vehicle carrying three people and one carrying only two. This is not my opinion, but the stated opinion of Dr. Bruce Smith of UVA who was on the panel that approved this unsolicited proposal. I can forward you the email in which he stated it, or you can find it in one of my previous posts. Search for "manual process."

If the highway is going to be remotely managed...
and if you cannot tell how many people are in each car...
and if every car on the facility is required to have a Smarttag...

Then how are you going to charge an SOV and not charge an HOV?

You can't tell the difference remotely! You HAVE to charge both, or you HAVE to put lots of enforcers with eyeballs at most, if not all, of the tolling points (remember, there will be lots of gantries, not one or two.) And that is NOT in the plans.

SluDge, this is just one of many objections lots of people have listed here.

Here's a few:

Promotes affluent exurban sprawl,
Promotes SOV commuting,
Promotes dependence on fossil fuel,
PUTS vehicles on the road, increasing traffic congestion,
Creates short-term pollution: construction materials, construction traffic, traffic delays
Creates long-term pollution: increase in SOV-toll vehicles,
Takes money out of the local economy (tolls go into the HOT lane contractor's pocket),
Lost local revenue = reduced sales tax revenues,
Creates an economic-based commuter class structure,
Socio-economic and geographic discrimination,

Now THAT makes perfect sense, NoSUV. Slugging causes congestion and tolls reduce it.

Encouraging more solo driving is good, right? More cars on the highways is good, right?

Carpooling (which is exactly what slugging is) creates congestion. Brilliant~!

You are a genius. Please, tell us more!

(Oh, and are you completely unaware that Omniride is a bus service that does exactly what you claim Metro can't? It is $3.80 per ride, and the buses run near capacity S-Bound.)