4 ms·

It’s not an expensive good - its a commons. The HOV lanes are “rich people super freeways” they are there to help mass transit.

• BurningFrog 10mo ago
  It's a scarce good, which loses most of its value if overused. The standard Econ solution is to set a price that maximizes throughput. At least some toll roads are attempting to hit that price.
  • SR2Z 10mo ago
    In the US, toll roads are required by law to maintain a certain minimum speed. The price is set based on that.
    • loeg 10mo ago
      What law?
      • SR2Z 10mo ago
        I suppose "regulation" would be more accurate, and it only applies to HOV lanes that receive funding from a specific source: https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freewaymgmt/hovguidance/chapter4.htm https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freewaymgmt/hovguidance/chapter4.ht... This covers pretty much all of the lanes that people complain about so I'll stand by what I said.
        • loeg 10mo ago
          That's interesting, but also a significantly narrower category than all toll roads.
          • SR2Z 10mo ago
            Sure, but if the complaint is "this was a public road and now you're adding a toll lane" then this is what applies.
• roncesvalles 10mo ago
  On this note, the "rich people super freeways" model actually does exist and works quite well, when implemented as a totally separate tolled highway that runs parallel to the toll-free one. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Highway_407 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Highway_407