Is everyone else missing the fact that this may be a bug in the algorithm? Read the update to the article, tolls are “surging” despite the road being almost empty.
$40 road tolls offer insight into commuter psychology
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Re: $40 road tolls offer insight into commuter psychology
#32> To many drivers' surprise, though, the tolls during rush hour were high, hitting $34.50 Monday morning and reaching $40 Tuesday. Is this like "surge pricing" on tolls? I thought most of the tolls are fixed to allow people know in advance what they must pay. If it increases based on demand, I think people will get mad. I think the psychology, if any, need not go towards the two choices. But rather what people though…
Ride sharing surge pricing gets nasty when it's a national disaster or other major unpredicted event and the rates are sexdecoupling, because it begins to look like profiteering off human misery. But moderate surge pricing is already a fact of life on ride sharing services.
Re: $40 road tolls offer insight into commuter psychology
#33I understand the psychology of it as far as the high price goes, I think also people are appalled that there are others who can afford such obscene prices too, not just that the prices are so high. And well the two counties funneling traffic into this road Fairfax and Loudon are the richest counties in US, I have no doubt they'll be enough people who will pay the $40.
But what most people are upset about is that the hours when the whole highway becomes HOV-2 only have been expanded. So solo drivers who were getting up early, could have made it into the city before the restrictions kicked in, now won't be able to, and will have to funnel to secondary roads.
Re: $40 road tolls offer insight into commuter psychology
#34I mean, one of the problems with tolls is that it is another form of taxing that has a bigger impact the lower income you have. Without getting into an ideological discussion, having surge pricing on tolls would contribute to a minor divide in class. In Australia this is a current topic, as (in Sydney specifically) there was a recent controversial highway widening which has been funded by tolls and constructed by a p…
China has this big time. Almost all of the infrastructure built out in the current book was privately financed and is heavily tolled (definitely by western standards, it is much worse by Chinese standards). This is part of the reasons chinese logistic prices are so high, but also why there are 8 day traffic jams (because the non-toll option went under construction) and why much of the infrastructure isn’t usable by local farmers.
Re: $40 road tolls offer insight into commuter psychology
#35I mean, one of the problems with tolls is that it is another form of taxing that has a bigger impact the lower income you have. Without getting into an ideological discussion, having surge pricing on tolls would contribute to a minor divide in class. In Australia this is a current topic, as (in Sydney specifically) there was a recent controversial highway widening which has been funded by tolls and constructed by a p…
Ive seen multiple sources say that widening roads only makes the problem worse yet in this article and in your comment it seems like the "solution" people are going for. That leaves me wondering; Are these sources not sound or are the people in charge of transport morons?
Re: $40 road tolls offer insight into commuter psychology
#36Ignoring the morals for a second, with tolls that high and difficulty identifying which vehicles qualify for a HOV exemption, I wonder how many days of tolls a single ticket is and likelihood of being caught? Let's say a ticket is $150. If the toll is $6 then you're likely better off paying the toll as you're likely to be caught at least once every 25 days. At $40 they'd need to catch you at least once a week for you…
Do they not have e-tags, cameras and registrations in this part of the world? I genuinely ask, since my assumption when using toll roads here is that the fine would find you pretty much as soon as you use the road...marginal errors and bugs aside.
On this road, they're using e-tags that have a "HOV" switch on them. If you set it to "HOV mode", you're not charged a toll. The tag can't actually know how many people are in the car, so someone could cheat by setting their tag to HOV and driving without anyone else in the car. Hence the actual officers-pulling-people-over enforcement required. (They have readers in the police cars that tell them whether a vehicle's transponder is in HOV mode or not.)
Re: $40 road tolls offer insight into commuter psychology
#37My main concern is that with tolls that high that only people with a lot of money can afford them (I make six figures but I doubt I would ever pay $40 for a toll. I would need much more money). These are also often the most influential people so they may think that everything is OK because they can afford the toll and never suffer in traffic. I think the same is happening with health care. Most people in Congress have enough money and get a nice insurance plan so they don't even understand how bad the US health system is for people in the lower incomes. They think it's perfectly fine and no need to change anything.
It's very problematic when in a society the people at the top never experience life the same way regular citizens do.
Re: $40 road tolls offer insight into commuter psychology
#38> Last week, only people in carpools with two people or more, drivers with an exempt hybrid vehicle, [...] during peak times. > This week, [...]. Hybrid folks and Dulles users also lost their privileges, [...] If I bought a home on the far end of this road thinking I could buy a hybrid or electric car and use it on the toll road, and then suddenly they take that away and start charging $30 each way, I'd be really ups…
California was the same way, hybrids were only supposed to get HOV access for a little while. It was written into the original law. (Don't know if that ever changed)
It's supposed to expire at the end of 2018: https://arb.ca.gov/msprog/carpool/carpool.htm
Whether or not it will be extended again is an open question.
Re: $40 road tolls offer insight into commuter psychology
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
where they previously had no permission to drive at all. I think this is where it's getting hung up. The signage and all other road markings on I-66 did not give a solo driver the overwhelming impression that they did not have "permission" to drive on those roads. Compounding this is that it was/is only during certain portions of the day. As an example, if I go onto the Dulles or Loudoun county toll roads, it's expli…
Definitely unique. I've never lived in DC but visited a few times for work and was flabbergasted when I heard about slug lines (I still am). It's a bad driving situation when you'll voluntarily get into a stranger's car, and drivers will just let random strangers in their car. That doesn't happen in any of the cities I've lived in.
An acquaintance I know has been going to work via a slug line for more than 10 years. It's impressive that it is reliable enough for getting to a day job. There are even unwritten rules you're supposed to follow and so on when in someone else's car.
Now I guess with Lyft and Uber it might seem less strange being in someone else's car these days. But before I can see how it would look totally weird for someone from out of town.
Re: $40 road tolls offer insight into commuter psychology
#40My main concern is that with tolls that high that only people with a lot of money can afford them (I make six figures but I doubt I would ever pay $40 for a toll. I would need much more money). These are also often the most influential people so they may think that everything is OK because they can afford the toll and never suffer in traffic. I think the same is happening with health care. Most people in Congress hav…
I'm curious how they use the money from the $40 toll. If, for example, they used the money to improve roads and other public transportation options so that everyone on average gets where they need to go faster, then that ought to make everyone happy.
Or else just divide up the revenue and mail everyone in the state a check at the end of the year. That would make me less angry about the fact that other people are able to afford the $40 toll.