Ross: Letting Puget Sound region’s freeway drivers choose their speed

I am very excited to report that a listener responded to my commentary way back in October on reorganizing highway lanes.

My idea was to use the toll system in reverse to pay rebates to drivers obeying the speed limit, to balance out the NASCAR drivers who tend use I-405 on the weekend. I figured since we already have the technology to toll drivers in the fast lines, why not use the same technology to reward speed-limit drivers in the ordinary lanes?

Well “JS” wrote back to say that even though he’s one of those fast drivers, he actually appreciated my free-market approach, which I found very encouraging because I know that social engineering of the highways is a sensitive topic.

His only question: Where would I get the money to do this?

So that got me thinking. The main problem on the freeway is not so much the speed itself but the speed differential.

When everybody’s going the same speed, great. But that never happens. Some drivers are going 75, some are at 65, a few are crawling along at 55, and so the only way to maintain your favorite speed is to start weaving, and that’s when it gets dangerous.

How about this: Let each driver choose their speed! Three lanes. Left lane, 75. Middle lane, 65. Right lane, 55.

In the 75 lane, you pay a fee for the privilege of beating everybody to work. In the 65 lane, you pay nothing, unless you’re caught going over 65. In the 55 lane on the right, you get a rebate for saving energy and to discourage left-lane camping.

The idea is to motivate people to sort themselves according to speed. Because if you can get the incentives right, you minimize the need to pass and the need to weave. The only weaving is when the speeders have to exit, transitioning through the lower speed lanes, respecting those posted speeds, and getting dinged if they don’t.

So Teslas get to speed, Priuses get to crawl, the dangerous speed differentials are minimized, and it pays for itself because we take the speed fees from the speeders, and use that money to pay the rebate to the slowpokes as a reward for saving energy and staying out of everybody’s way.

You are free to join the speed community of your choice, accidents are eliminated, and Chris Sullivan’s traffic reports are nothing but good news.

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