How many times have they tolled you?
Feb 13, 2015, 7:10 AM | Updated: Feb 20, 2015, 10:50 pm
Tolls don't have to be fixed - they can change depending on traffic, and how many are in your carpool, and that's becoming the rule. (WSDOT Photo)
(WSDOT Photo)
Everybody hates highway taxes. So about 20 years ago, states began exploring free market solutions to raising money for roads.
You are now the genuine possessor of a toll booth!
Ah, but we are way beyond the old toll booth. Tolls are now automated, which means they don’t have to be limited to bridges – they can pop up everywhere.
“Purple and green signs mark HOT lane entrances. White and green signs list the toll for the trip. The top line will show how much it will cost you from here to the next exit.”
Tolls don’t have to be fixed – they can change depending on traffic, and how many are in your carpool, and that’s becoming the rule from Georgia. “It was $4.15 this morning to get down to Atlanta.”
In California, “Everyone seems to have an excuse as to why they were in the carpool lane without the required amount of passengers.”
Since it’s self-defeating for cops to pull over HOT carpool violators – now there are hi-tech solutions for that too.
“At XEROX, we understand these challenges. Our system safely and briefly illuminates a vehicle’s interior through the front windshield and through the rear side window to obtain a reliable occupancy count.”
- So lets’ add it up:
- Cameras snap you when you come to a red light
- Cameras snap you when you enter a school zone
- Cameras snap your license plate for the HOT lane
- And pretty soon, a camera may look inside your car to count heads
Welcome to the free market – where freedom isn’t free, but it is cheaper before 6 a.m.
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Tune in to KIRO Newsradio weekdays at 5am for Dave Ross on Seattle's Morning News.
