The grant would pay for the electronic signs and sensors necessary to make the change. The toll would change during the day, going from a nominal charge most of the day to $2-3 dollars during peak periods. Sensors would sense traffic flow and increase the toll when traffic increases, say, after a Panthers game. Drivers would be required to have a transponder chip to utilize the lane so you can be billed for your trip.
I question the sanity of this proposal. I make the trip to and from Charlotte every day. I cannot reason why I, or anyone else for that matter, would pay a couple dollars to travel at the same speed as the free lanes only to run headlong into the bottleneck that occurs a mile or so after the HOT lane ends. Or, in the morning, after I have driven in stop and go traffic from Exit 25 to about mile marker 22, the traffic frees up before you get to the HOT lane and is unobstructed until you get to Charlotte.
I have another idea. On a couple of trips to Virginia, Northern Virginia and the Tidewater area, I have seen the way Virginia is handling this problem. If this were Virginia, they would beef up the shoulder and add an additional lane that could be used during peak times. This could easily be done from Exit 23 going north to Exit 28 and From Exit 28 going south all the way to the four lane section of the highway. Since the lanes would necessarily be narrowed, they would have to reduce the speed limit to 55 or 60, but that would be a big improvement over the 20 to 30 MPH that you drive a peak times on this stretch of highway.
If the purpose of a stimulus grant is to increase jobs, I contend that paving highways produces more jobs than putting up some signs, laying down sensors and creating an agency to collect tolls. They say that highway construction jobs are not “green” jobs. I say they are. To eliminate traffic bottlenecks and keep traffic moving can reduce traffic pollution far more than a Lexus Lane to nowhere.
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