Pay to be Special

The Utah Department of Transportation is allowing people to pay to use the HOV lane. This isn't an HOV lane, it's a toll lane.

These HOV lanes were originally built to ease conjestion. They were intended to reward people who had more than themselves in the car or truck with their own lane. When traffic backed up they could cruise by, feeling environmentally smug.

Now UDOT will let you buy a pass that allows a single occupant to pay a toll (up to $1.00 depending on how busy the other lanes are) to use this lane.

This defeats the whole purpose of the HOV lane and it is a bait and switch use of taxpayers money.

It defeats the purpose of the HOV lane because now anyone who has the cash and wants to feel special can pay their way into this lane. This will result in this lane being just another lane clogged with single occupant vehicles and the only one who will benefit is UDOT by its revenue. We should change the name to SOL (Special Occupancy Lane - not the other version of SOL).

It's a bait and switch because the public was told this HOV lane would be used to cut down on pollution and give those who have more than one occupant in their vehicle an easier ride. Now it is just a toll lane.

Shame on you UDOT. You are sending the wrong message with the toll lane. You're saying that it's OK to continue to ride alone in a vehicle and pollute the air as long as you can pay for it.

Today was a yellow air quality day. I remember when we didn't have "air quality days". Maybe we should work to reduce our impact on the air rather than try to pay our way out of the inconvience of being stuck in traffic with all the other single occupancy vehicles.

If this were really "The World According to Pedro" we would be able to mount grenade launchers on our cars and fire at will at those with no consideration for others while driving. This would free up the freeways, reduce polution and make my commute a whole lot more fun.

Just a Thought.