I read this article in the Washington Post with great interest.  It’s about HOT lanes being built on the Capital Beltway in Northern Virginia that will have fluctuating tolls depending on such factors as the average speed on the road, the number of users at a particular time, etc.  According to studies done for the HOT project the average rush hour cost would be about $1.54 per mile an the lanes will run 14 miles from Springfield (home of the infamous "Mixing Bowl" where the Beltway, I-95 and I-395 all converge) to the Dulles Toll Road.  So that comes to an average toll of about $21.56 to use the full 14 miles, but if the traffic is really and the traffic is threatening to overwhelm the HOT lanes the toll operators can raise the price to price out people who don’t really need to get where they’re going that fast.

The article gives average time savings for the HOT lanes as well, and they don’t sound that impressive, but again that’s average.  At peak times I have a feeling that you’ll have people paying a lot of money to save significant amounts of time.  I used to use that route regularly when I lived in NoVa and I can tell you that that stretch of road at the height of rush hour can literally take you hours to get through, especially if it’s raining.  Since I haven’t lived there for four years and I know how much worse the traffic gets year by year I can only imagine how bad it is now.

If I still lived in NoVa I could easily imagine paying the toll on an irregular basis in times that I needed to make one of the kids’ school events or had a meeting I could not miss.  Unfortunately I could easily imagine paying that toll, whizzing through that 9 mile corridor and finding myself stuck in a traffic jam on the other end.  Thus you understand one of the motivations we had for moving the hell away from NoVa.  That ain’t a way to live.