The upside about calling your blog "random rants" is it means I'm under no obligation to only rant on politics, I can rant on whatever I like, so with that in mind its time I diversify my subject material a little bit.
For those who dont know me I live the greater Washington DC metropolitan area (and to be honest if you dont know me, that's as specific as your gonna get :p ), so I spend a fair amount of time driving on I-495 AKA the capital beltway AKA congestion hell.
And it's because of that last part that building HOV(HOT in other places) lanes around Tyson's corner (one of the major causes of congestion hell) seemed like a good idea....on paper anyway. In practice not so much. The new HOV lanes just opened 2 days ago, and in the first 24 hours there were already 4 crashes related to the new lanes as people accidentally wind up headed towards them, especially since as it turns out, there are no road signs that direct you to the THRU lanes or on how to avoid the HOV lanes
Now I know what your thinking (at least those of you who live outside DC), how do HOV lanes make you crash...just drive 100-200 ft and move back into the regular lanes. And you know what, normally, in all the places that don't physically separate the HOV lanes from the regular lanes that might work. When you have a giant block of concrete between you not so much.
But even then, things cant be that bad, I mean even the HOV has exits fairly frequently, ever other or every 3rd exit, usually by the standards of other HOV lanes in the area (395/270 ect). So you drive an exit, and get off as soon as you can, unless you have the uber bad luck of needed the one exit you passed in the HOV no harm no foul.
And again, normally you would be right, IF it cost you nothing to drive on the HOV lanes. Which in the case of these new lanes it doesn't. It costs money. How much money you ask? well that's where things get a little schemey (and I dont care thats not a real word), see the prices are kinda random, and their is no ceiling to how high the rate can go (although their is a floor of $3). And remember there are currently no signs that make it clear how you avoid these lanes, so that could be a very pricey mistake if your not intimately familiar with the area.
The company that is managing the new HOV toll roads promised traffic would move at 45 MPH minimum at all times. And lets be honest, thats kinda of an insane promise, I dont care if you live in NYC, or in fuck nowhere Wyoming, you've been caught in traffic at least once were it was moving well below the posted speed limit.
So how exactly does the company plan of enforcing its "45+ MPH guarantee"? well thats where the semi random pricing comes in. See the company is going to monitor the traffic flow and make second by second adjustments to the price. High traffic flow on either the HOV or main lanes will lead to prices to get on to the HOV to shoot up, essentially as a disincentive to keep you off of them unless you want to pay consistently inflating prices just for the privilege of driving.
Or to simply this and show why I think its kinda an evil scheme: You pay and for that you get promised 45 MPH traffic. However if the company can not deliver on their end of the bargain at that given moment the solution is to charge you MORE for a service they are all ready failing to provide. If they still cant deliver on their end of the bargain, they get to charge you even more, even if they have to share profits with the state of Virginia.
Essentially, the less service they provide, the more money they get to make.
Now yes I realize that at some point they don't get enough people using their lanes to actually make a profit, but their is a very long time when they will actually make more money with slightly less customers, and therefore an incentive not to deliver on their promise.
Just check the math: say they get 100 cars in an hour at $3 a car, they make $300 an hour. But say only get 95 cars at 3.50 an hour thats $332.50 an hour. 90 cars at $4 is 360. In fact you can use that same formula (-5 cars +50.cents) and they make more profit then the base line all they up to 30 cars in an hour charging $10 a car...which is where they break even with the base line.
So its in their best interests to fail at delivering on their promise as long as they can appear to be moving faster then the regular lanes, even if only at the point you have to choose to get on)
And what do the rest of us get in exchange for this? Well I'm sure traffic in Tyson's will get better, but as anyone who lives in DC knows, the lead ups to the first and last merges into and out of the 395/270 HOV's are some of the slowest parts of traffic in the DC area (outside the city itself). And thats true with HOV's that people know they can get into (since they are free). Now you have an HOV that no one can tell ahead of time if they want to be in our not. So likely your going to see a long backup of people hugging the lane that becomes the HOV lane, waiting to see what that second's price is going to be to decide if it's worth it or not to try to take the lanes. Which is going to result in ALOT of last second lane shifts, and of course contribute the illusion the HOV lanes are moving faster then the main lanes so people on the fence will opt to pay.
Especially when mixed in with the people who know they cant take the HOV as they dont have enough people in the car, but cant figure out how to avoid it because its not marked (see those people will both pay the HOV price AND get charged with a ticket (which goes 100% to the state), so even more profit for the state of Virginia, hence the reason I believe they didnt put up signs for the THRU/non HOV lanes) who will also be slowing down traffic at that point on the main lanes. So while the traffic in Tyson's will get better, my guess is the traffic near Rockville and Alexandra (on either side of Tyson's/ the HOV's) is about to get a lot worse.
And all for the goal of setting up a system where if the company lives up to its promise it (and the state of Virginia) makes money...and if they dont they make more money (up to a point), so all the parties with power actually have an incentive to make sure the system NEVER works as promised, and to make commutes worse in the stretches leading up to the money making part.
I really hope this doesnt become a model for the country or none of us are ever getting home from work again....unless we want to spend all our disposable income to do it.
EDIT: PS, the other scam part of this? its thanksgiving week...so they know they will get lots of traffic and therefore lots of confused drivers between out of towers and locals who haven't learned the UNMARKED way to avoid the HOV/Pay lanes.
So expect MASSIVE profits and horrible traffic.......
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