I can understand the political reasoning behind the grant to Minneapolis, however the South Florida and SF proposals seem like pork to me.

I’m not much of a supporter of the HOT lanes in South Florida. First of all, I wouldn’t call this “congestion pricing”. It’d call it variable pricing, which is totally different from Bloomberg’s plan or London’s system. It’s basically just another road-based policy for reducing expressway congestion, which unfortunately is usually the primary goal of planners in SoFla (opposed to making the region more livable/sustainable).

There’s actually a funny video used in the Herald recently that touts the success of HOT lanes in California. However, if you watch the video closely, you’ll see that next to the free-flowing HOT lane traffic, there are still four-to-five lanes of regular traffic that is hardly moving at all. Plus, hybrid vehicles get a free ride in the HOT lanes, which sends the message that it’s fine to drive all you want in South Florida as long as have a hybrid.

As you mentioned above, you didn’t see any requirement for Miami/Ft. Lauderdale to invest the toll money into transit. Well, that’s because there isn’t one. Nope, it will all be reinvested into road projects and services, at least for the foreseeable future.

Basically the only potential benefit that could come from this is improved express bus service in the HOT lanes between Ft Lauderdale and Miami. However, there’s a problem, here. People still need to get to the express bus stops, and I’ll tell you, it is extremely hostile to pedestrians/cyclists up and down the entire I-95 corridor. They’ll probably offer free parking at the park n’ ride stations, and everyone is going to drive to the express bus lots. This practically ensures congestion will remain bad on I-95 in the “free lanes”, and remain bad in neighborhoods that are absorbing park n’ ride traffic.

Even the supporters of the HOT lanes claim it’s good for “guaranteeing high-speed travel on a particular day when people have to be on time”. That sounds like mediocrity to me.

I’m not much of a supporter of the HOT lanes in South Florida. First of all, it bothers me when people (mostly South Floridians) call this “congestion pricing”, because it’s definitely not. It’s variable pricing, which is totally different from Bloomberg’s plan or London’s system. It’s basically just another road-based policy for reducing expressway congestion, which unfortunately is the primary goal of planners in SoFla (opposed to making the region more livable/sustainable).

There’s actually a funny video used in the Herald recently that touts the success of HOT lanes in California. However, if you watch the video closely, you’ll see that next to the free-flowing HOT lane traffic, there are still four-to-five lanes of regular traffic that is hardly moving at all. Plus, hybrid vehicles get a free ride in the HOT lanes, which sends the message that it’s fine to drive all you want in South Florida as long as have a hybrid.

As you mentioned above, you didn’t see any requirement for Miami/Ft. Lauderdale to invest the toll money into transit. Well, that’s because there isn’t one. Nope, it will all be reinvested into road projects and services, at least for the foreseeable future.

Basically the only potential benefit that could come from this is improved express bus service in the HOT lanes between Ft Lauderdale and Miami. However, there’s a problem, here. People still need to get to the express bus stops, and I’ll tell you, it is extremely hostile to pedestrians/cyclists up and down the entire I-95 corridor. They’ll probably offer free parking at the park n’ ride stations, and everyone is going to drive to the express bus lots. This practically ensures congestion will remain bad on I-95 in the “free lanes”, and remain bad in neighborhoods that are absorbing park n’ ride traffic.

Even the supporters of the HOT lanes claim it’s good for “guaranteeing high-speed travel on a particular day when people have to be on time”. That sounds like mediocrity to me.