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Would You Pay $10 A Day To Cut Your Commute By 35 Minutes?

 
1,688 views Dec 22, 2010
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Traffic Jam

Traffic Jam

How much is your time worth?

If you live in southern California and drive to work, the answer for some of you seems to be more than $17 an hour.

That conclusion is drawn from data contained in an Infrastrurist interview with Jack Finn, the head of toll services for HTNB, an infrastructure firm that designed Route 91 in Orange County.

Route 91 is one of nine roads in the U.S. offering High-Occupancy Toll access to its High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV lane). As well as vehicles with two or more passengers, single-occupant single-driver cars can use the lane by paying a toll to enter what is known as a HOT lane.

Stuck in traffic, by Flickr user SMercury98

Stuck in traffic, by Flickr user SMercury98

Enlarge Photo

The goal of HOT lanes is to vary pricing enough to keep traffic flowing smoothly. If a HOT/HOV lane seems to be filling up with vehicles at certain times, the entry price for that period is raised until it discourages new entrants, and a new equilibrium is achieved.

Finn said that a 10-mile commute along a usually congested stretch of Route 91 takes 45 minutes at the height of rush hour. The HOT lane tolls during that period are set at $10, which he says keeps traffic flowing at 60 mph.

So at least some drivers are willing to spend $10 to cut 35 minutes off their commute. That translates $17.15 an hour, meaning they think their time is worth more than that rate. (Finn notes that rates in less affluent and less congested parts of the country usually top out below $4 per 10-mile stretch.)

HOT lanes have been criticized as "Lexus Lanes," a luxury affordable only by the very rich. Finn says that's not true, and that studies show people of all income brackets make the judgment that it's worth paying to save that time on a particular day.

china traffic main 630

china traffic main 630

Enlarge Photo

HOT lanes now exist in Denver, Minneapolis, and San Diego, with more than 30 more under construction in locales as diverse as Miami and San Francisco.

Single-occupant access to HOV lanes has also been offered to drivers of hybrids in California, but those "Prius perks" will end next year, replaced by similar access for electric-vehicle drivers.

A 2005 study by the Texas Transportation Institute, at Texas A&M University, found that commuters lose almost 50 hours of their time--that's a full average work week--to delays in rush-hour driving each year. Those same delays now waste tens or hundreds millions of gallons of gasoline.

At $3 a gallon, fuel is still far cheaper than time. But tell us: Do you think paying $10 is reasonable to save 35 minutes?

Leave us your thoughts in the Comments below.

[Infrastructurist]





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Comments (8)

  1. MichaelThwaite avatar Michael Thwaite Posted: 12/22/2010 9:55am PST

    I'm going to dodge the question - as an EV driver I get HOV for free - but ask, how would the traffic be affected by the opening of that extra lane to regular traffic?
    Would it ease the flow by opening up the artery or simply move the clog further up the road to the next exit ramp?
    ...ok so, in answer to the question... Yes, sometimes, I'd like the option when I needed it but for the rest of the time, I'll catch up on podcasts and relax.
     
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  2. By  intensive driving Posted: 12/22/2010 10:15am PST

    Are motorcyclists allowed to use the HOT lanes free of charge? In London they're allowed to use bus lanes which I think is absolutely fair and saves us all money having to treat them on the NHS!
     
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  3. john_v avatar John Voelcker Posted: 12/22/2010 10:16am PST

    @Michael: I'm not a traffic engineer, nor do I play one on TV, but there's a rule in that profession that says traffic adjusts fairly quickly to occupy new capacity. Turns out traffic can best be modeled as a liquid flow rather than discrete units of behavior, IIRC. So if you opened that HOV/HOT lane to regular traffic, it would quickly clog up too as extra cars occupied it--meaning slightly fewer people per hour might be moved, since it would remove any marginal incentive for ridesharing.
     
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  4. By Andrew Wiskow Posted: 12/28/2010 2:16am PST

    The information in this article isn't exactly accurate. I live near the section of Route 91 that they're talking about, and the HOV lane actually changes into a TOLL-ONLY section. This way, not only do they make money by collecting tolls from people who are willing to pay extra for lighter traffic, but they also get to collect fines from carpoolers who fail to exit the HOV lane before it becomes a toll road. The toll road is fully automated, so if you don't have the FasTrack box in your car, they take a photo of your license plate and send you the bill in the mail.
    Now, there is a section of I-15 between Temecula and San Diego that works the way that's described in this article, where it's a HOV lane AND a toll lane for single-occupancy vehicles.
    Oh, one other mistake in this article... the use of the term "single-driver cars". I've personally never heard of a car that WASN'T a single-driver car. It'd be a little strange if there were two or more people driving the same car, wouldn't it? ;)
     
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  5. By chanelle green Posted: 12/28/2010 4:49am PST

    35 minutes does not quite seem like long enough to pay $10.. maybe if it was an hour or more. I spend more that 35 minutes straitening my hair just so I can throw it into a ponytail before work.. if I'm that pressed for time I could go au natural. But that $10 could go into a vacation fund.
     
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  6. By  The Regular Joe Posted: 12/28/2010 5:12am PST

    there is nothing more valueable then time and many people just lose all value while standing in traffic. i wrote a short bit on traffic jams if you want to read it:
    http://theregjoe.blogspot.com/2010/11/traffic.html
     
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  7. john_v avatar John Voelcker Posted: 12/28/2010 5:36am PST

    @Andrew Wiskow: Good catch on the "single-driver" cars ... I've changed it to the more accurate "single-occupant".
     
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  8. By CoolC Posted: 12/28/2010 7:42pm PST

    If I were late for an important appointment or meeting or even an interview I would pay the money, otherwise, nyet!
     
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