Atlanta's coming HOT lanes

[sr641]

I dont think I've ever gone through Atlanta without hitting a traffic jam. Hopefully these hotlanes will help.

[brownpelican]

Don't get your hopes up. Atlanta is like Los Angeles: Everyone wants to drive his/her own car.

[cpzilliacus]

Don't get your hopes up. Atlanta is like Los Angeles: Everyone wants to drive his/her own car.

I've seen plenty of highway and  street congestion even in New York City, which has the highest percentage of zero-car households in the United States.

[Grzrd]

This article (behind paywall) reports that use of the HOT lane is increasing, but that increasing scrutiny is being placed on the socioeconomic status of the users of the lane:

.... The daily average price of the toll over 24 hours ($1.72) and the average number of drivers using it per day (20,768) have reached all-time highs. And while motorists were slow to embrace the state's first HOT lane when it opened, as its initial revenue figures show, a quarter of a million Peach Pass transponders have been issued, more than double the amount in circulation when the lane opened ....
"That lane has proven to be very successful,"  Gov. Nathan Deal told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month. "And that's what it was created for – to take as much pressure off the other lanes as possible."
In reality, the state is still studying its impact on traffic in other lanes. ....
Annual revenue has since grown to $5.7 million, within the range projected for fiscal year 2013 of $4.4 million to $8.7 million. The lane still runs at a deficit, however, because the annual operating costs were $7.4 million. ....
An ongoing criticism of the lane has been that it is a "Lexus Lane,"  benefiting only the wealthy, and that it does little to improve traffic for everyone else.
A recent study by the Southern Environmental Law Center was the first to look at the relationship between income levels and use of the lane. Researchers found residents of the ZIP code with the highest median income use the lane at rates five times greater than people living in the lowest median income ZIP code. The study, however, was based on limited data over a short time frame.
A state-funded study on various aspects of the impact of the HOT lane – such as the effect it has had on commute times in the general-purpose lanes, plus the socio-economic groups that make up its users – is expected to be released later this year.