A SlugPoll: What's it worth to you?

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   maybe we'll just have to stick our arms out and wave as we pass the camera. [:p]

	do tell your slug saving grace idea, sponge!

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kgirl Members Profile Find Members Posts New Slug Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Location: Virginia Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote kgirl Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08 Dec 2004 at 3:18pm
	maybe we'll just have to stick our arms out and wave as we pass the camera. [:p] do tell your slug saving grace idea, sponge!

SpongeBob Members Profile Find Members Posts New Slug Joined: 06 Oct 2004 Location: VA Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote SpongeBob Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08 Dec 2004 at 4:41pm
	Bob, if you had your Smarttag in your briefcase, you would be charged the whole value of a vehicle, and so would every other tag in the vicinity. The machine can't tell the proximity of the tags to one another. There are "socks" you can buy that will keep your tag from being charged. My guess is that if a vehicle went through a toll-taking device without registering a payment, a photo of the offender would be taken and broadcast on the internet, drawing the ferocious interest of bloodythirsty helmeted sci-fi bounty hunters on anti-grav sleds who will chase you up I-95 at near-light speeds until they.... Um. Or maybe VDOT would just send you a ticket? (Ah, Kgirl, you asked. Thanks. I don't know if my idea will draw more outrage than understanding, but I'll start a thread on it tomorrow. One benefit of being a Sponge is that I can absorb tremendous amounts of damage.)

dickboyd Members Profile Find Members Posts New Slug Joined: 13 Nov 2004 Location: California Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote dickboyd Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 20 Dec 2004 at 7:02pm
	I assume Bob is looking for a dollar value for slugging. When toll road operators set the tolls, they figure the value of the traveller's time. The last figures I saw from the 1980s were $9 per hour. If there was a parallel route and the toll saved time, the toll was priced at $9 per travel hour saved. I think the Chicago tolls, which are going up in January, were based on $9 per hour. If too high, the motorists go to the parallel route. If too low, the toll road gets jammed. Public transit also sets their fare box rates on the amount of extra time people are willing to spend. Compare the price and time of a METRO bus from the City of Farifax to Alexandria with the price and time of METRO form the same origin to the same destination. I think a more open HOT discussion would enlighten people regarding the costs of transportation in the DC area. How much of METRO and VRE do you pay for, even if you never ride? Don't say zero unless you look at your property tax, your landlord's property tax, or the allocation of your fuel tax dollars. The idea of Lexus Lanes might be used to balance the budget. Colect enough money so people with lots of money and little common sense pay through the nose. For the peons stranded on the regular lanes begin a welfare program of free sandwiches, much like Charlie gets when he rides the MTA in Boston. [:)] I don't think slug drivers should be paid in money. They get paid in time saved and taxes avoided. Taxes required to build new roads, including new HOT lanes. At times, when I compare the cost of a METRO or VRE passnenger, I think we should PAY PASSENGERS to become slugs! There is enough "capacity" in the empty seats of the drive alone to make congestion disappear tomorrow, should we find the political will. For some reason we prefer to sit in traffic. Not much of a home life, I guess. I'll bet this post never makes it to a bulletin board in a government building. I'll bet it never gets duplicated and handed out in a slug line. I got 25 cents that says this message of paying slugs will never see the light of day. Send me a picture or a newspaper clipping and I'll send you the quarter. quote: Originally posted by SpongeBob [br]Please answer briefly to help us compile a little data about slugging: 1. What is the dollar value of being able to slug? In other words, if you had to pay to ride, how much would you be willing to hand over, in cash, to a driver? This is presuming that the HOV lanes are still working! 2. What is the dollar value of being able to drive on the HOV with slugs? If there is a toll on using the HOV, would you ask slugs to pay a portion of it? How much, presuming a $5 toll? Thanks everyone!! dickboyd@aol.com

dickboyd Members Profile Find Members Posts New Slug Joined: 13 Nov 2004 Location: California Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote dickboyd Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 20 Dec 2004 at 7:08pm
	There is no free lunch. You "pay" for slugging now with the minor inconvenience of having to sleep on your commute when you could be awake swearing at the other drivers. Doesn't that sound like fun? Would you be willing to have someone pay YOU to slug? How much? Hint, as a baseline figure out how much subsidy goes to each METRO, VRE, Farifax Connector, DASH, DART, etc. passenger. quote: Originally posted by 610staffordslug [br]I believe the main reason people slug is that it is free. If people are willing to pay $2 and $3 dollars per way everyday, why don't they join an organized carpool or vanpool. If you couldn't tell already, I would be unwilling to pay anything for slugging. dickboyd@aol.com

SpongeBob Members Profile Find Members Posts New Slug Joined: 06 Oct 2004 Location: VA Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote SpongeBob Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 29 Apr 2005 at 4:41pm
	In light of the fact that our glorious regional leaders have now blessed us with a Toll Road on OUR land, and since they have admitted: '"If you're expecting to get HOV-3 and ride for free, it's not clear that's going to be possible at this stage," said Ronald F. Kirby, transportation planning director of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments,' I thought it might be time to revive this little poll. Please go to the first section, then come back and tell us What you would pay? Go back and read the SpongePosts of December 8, 2004. It's all right there. I should change my name to Kassandra. --sound of weeping--

122582 Members Profile Find Members Posts New Slug Joined: 28 Apr 2005 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote 122582 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 29 Apr 2005 at 7:45pm
	Hats off to SpongeBob for taking a survey. I'm a driver who makes the Rt3 to Pentagon run daily. What does it cost me? Lets use the "savings from slugging link" 130 mile round trip, 22 days per month, 27 MPG, $2.25/gallon, TCO based on 2001 Federal Highway Administration's Cost of Owning and Operating a Vehicle. Annual cost, $20,877.96, monthly $1739.83, daily $79.08. Run the figures if you don't believe it. Why do I pick up slugs? Rt3 lot is on my way, and picking up 2 slugs saves me 2.5 hours on the round trip commute. My free time is worth $25/hour, so slugs save me $67.50/day. The effective cost of my commute (driving my car) is therefore, $11.58/day. If tolls come into play at $5.00 from Springfield to Pentagon, then my effective daily cost becomes $21.58/day - almost doubling. VRE + Metro was costing me $100/week (not counting my cost of driving to the train station) so about $20/day. The time required for the trip was approximately the same as driving non-HOV on I-95, so I was wasting $67.50/day in free time and spending an effective $87.50/day for the commute. One alternative is to take the bus from Ukrops at a cost of $18.00/day with a time savings equal to picking up slugs, so my net savings would be $71.08. I wouldn't have my car with me at the Pentagon, but can live without it. I could also form an official carpool with three others, and reduce my daily commute to one fourth my post-toll cost, or $22.77/day. I'd still have my daily savings of $67.50 in free time. I prefer to drive, however, if I were to have to pay an additional $10/day out of pocket, I would no longer pick up slugs, but seek an alternative method. I might consider slugging myself, and I wouldn't hesitate to split the toll with the other passenger. Total commute cost $10/day. Some slugs complain they have to overly control their behavior (though many new slugs do not), drivers make sacrifices too. I don't smoke when I'm hauling slugs, or before so the car doesn't smell like smoke. I don't stop for gas with slugs in the car, though that would be very convenient. I have offered to make rest stops when traffic has been absolutely stupid (and profusely thanked for doing so). I think it's a pretty good system, but let's be fair. The value to a slug from my neck of the woods is the $79.08 from the calculator plus 2.5 hours times whatever your free time is worth, plus a value of arriving at work/home refreshed by an hour long nap. Yet you balk at coughing up the price of a toll? Now that I've presented very real costs of driving and savings to slugs, does anyone want to change their opinion?