Daily News Repeats Others’ Arguments Against HOT Lanes

Sign Announcing HOT Lanes on SR-167 Outside of Seattle

Metro took another shot to the chin this morning when the Daily News joined the congestion pricing pile-on with its unimaginative editorial, "HOV lane conversion plan is a taxpayer rip-off." Honestly? The Daily News should have just reprinted the Tim Rutton's Op/Ed from the other week and saved itself the effort of trotting out the same arguments every other newspaper has already made.

The piece starts out slow enough, a typical "Lexus Lanes" argument that I've written about so many times that I'll just say this. When someone actually takes the time to ask people what they think about HOT Lanes in areas where they've already been tried, people of all income levels approve of HOT Lanes. The argument that these lanes only benefit the rich is usually put forward by members of the lower-upper class or upper-middle class because they are worried they'll be stuck in congestion forever while their rich friends speed by them.

Later the Daily News argues that HOT Lanes won't do anything to relieve traffic. Of course, newspaper editors that are writing articles from the gut instead of from the brain are least likely to understand the nuances of congestion management. There was an excellent piece in the Contra Costa Times yesterday that explains how HOT Lanes make traffic better for everyone.

But as I've said before about carpool lanes, in their pure form, they keep traffic moving. That's not just a boon for the people paying for the fast lane, but for people in the slow lanes, too. Congestion doesn't just slow traffic down. It greatly reduces the capacity of the freeway. Opening up one of those clogged pipes means that a lot more traffic drains through, which takes pressure off the other pipes, too. So the rich are actually doing the proles a favor by paying their way through.