Since then, I've been on them in Chicago, Pittsburgh, northern Ohio, and West Virginia.

instead, SamTrans on the Peninsula cut all but one of its express buses in order to fund Caltrain.

when we did not have one. We don't have one in town but to go South or East on the major Interstate you must pay a toll.

Pay a toll, get to ride solo in the HOV lane or on a faster bypass. It's all the rage in CA these days. Can't build them fast enough. IMHO most "freeways" will be toll roads within 10 years.

I want HOV lanes eliminated. I consider it an entitled snot's lane.

Or carpooling?

Well, I see the lane is sparsely populated and full of single driver hybrids. Now, I'm all for exploiting the given rules but a car that gets more MPG than a hybrid must languish with the peasants while a single driver in a hybrid gets a free pass.

Free up the lanes and let traffic flow.

I would, however, pay extra to be able to drive in the HOV lane, a toll, if you will.

You believe a toll would be ok but allowing hybrid vehicles isn't?

I could understand if you were against anything but HOV vehicles the way it was in the carpool lanes in California (pre-hybrid vehicles).

I can't stand toll roads but have no issue with a lane reserved for cars full of people.

Absolutely. My most valuable commodity besides my brilliance and humility is my time and I'm willing to spend money to save time.

I am against the, "this toll will only exist to pay off xxx and then will go away". Which we all know is a lie as the bureaucracy ends up feasting on the funds.

Paying extra to get my way would be money well spent as there's no way I would buy a hybrid unless they make one that gets worse mileage than a Hummer.

I forgot to mention my luminance.

"this toll will only exist to pay off xxx and then will go away"

Except for I-30 running between Fort Worth and Dallas. Once a tolled highway, now a freeway... But no doubt, melodrama is often more entertaining than reality in many cases.

That might be the case in a progressive utopia like Texas but here in conservative California, or New Jersey and New York, that would never happen.

So to get rid of them, you need to get rid of state level Republicans.

the most egregious example being the Indiana Toll Road, which carries I-80 and 90 between Chicago and Toledo.

The maintenance of toll roads is paid for by the people who actually use them, not people who travel mostly by public transportation or those who predominantly stay local or those downstate, and at least around here, the tolls are mostly well worth it.

I recall once when I needed to drive from the Western burbs of Chicago up to Southern Wisconsin the morning after a snow storm. The roadway on I90 was almost entirely clear and the driving was easy. But you could literally see the state line on the road because within a space of about 50 feet it went from clear road to white-knuckle driving. That just reinforced my willingness to help to pay for the specific roads that I drive on.

And pay for the stupid roads. Otherwise we have to pay however much money to go to work every day. And republicans want to sell off the interstate to pay for tax cuts. Soon we will have to pay $1.25 to a Chinese corporation to leave our drive way. But at least billionaires that take a private jet everywhere and don't care about toll roads won't have to pay more taxes.

Many toll roads now are under the control of for profit corporations, some foreign, that will keep raising tolls rates for riders while externalizing costs like safety and up keep to government funded agencies we pay for such as police and road hwy/road maintenance. Private, expensive roads for the rich and marginalization of regular and non wealthy people is the way it's looking.

The same thing is happening with the 'commons', ongoing privatization/profitization of public schools, aka charters since the 90s, cuts to public colleges and staff, public parks, and other govt. programs and services attacked for years namely the US Postal Service, Social Security, Medicare, Food Stamps and Welfare that the GOP wants to eliminate and/or privatize, unless somehow halted.

Personally I don't want minimum wage workers w/o background checks from Romney's Staples store handling my mail or teachers and low paid, low skilled private employees obtained from places like Craigslist working in schools, parks, the DMV, Social Security offices and many govt. agencies so private for profit corporate execs. from hedge funds and private equity firms in charge can make salaries in the millions. Govt. run agencies always have lower operating costs and senior mgmt. salaries and many more safety checks in place.