We have all become accustomed to High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lanes. In our area we have now moved to High Occupancy Toll (HOT) Lanes.
This is progress! ... Or is it?
Here is how HOT Lanes work...
- 73,000 transponders have been issued to drivers interested in using the fast HOT Lanes.
- Vehicles that have three occupants can drive in the HOT Lanes without charge.
- Vehicles that have fewer than three can use the HOT Lanes but they will have to pay a toll.
- Depending on how heavy the traffic is at the time that the lane is being used, the toll can range anywhere from ten to ninety cents a mile.
Officials have been quoted as saying, “This provides a transportation advantage to people in that corridor who are willing to pay for that advantage”.
As you would expect controversy surrounds this progressive step. There are a lot of lawyers who are chomping at the bit to file law suits. The basis for their anger, as is so often the case in the Good Ole USofA, is Fairness.
I again posed as a fly on the wall in the palatial law offices of one of the law firms heading up this fight back against unfairness and here is what I uncovered...
The law suits will contend that it is unfair that these fast lanes will be limited to the rich and that working folk should be allowed to get to Wal-Mart just as fast as moneyed people.
In my opinion, everyone ought to be required to use only the fast lanes. It ought to be against the law to drive in any of those other six lanes.
Why should only the rich get to go fast?
Would I kid u?
