The infamous Interstate 85 HOT Express lanes have been both groundbreaking and controversial in their three-year existence. They hit a new milestone last week, as the full southbound trip on I-85 took $10 from Old Peachtree Road to Shallowford Road for the first time.
No, the benchmark didn’t set off an alarm, drop some balloons, or create a social media tidal wave. But the new high dollar amount does tell us a couple of things about Atlanta’s transportation system.
We have monitored the prices closely in the WSB Traffic Center since the managed toll lanes’ inception in October 2011. When the prices made sharp increases in their debut week, Gov. Nathan Deal worked with the State Road and Toll Authority to limit that rise. Over the next couple of years prices steadily increased, finally reaching double digits in the past few days. SRTA raises the prices in the HOT lanes based on demand, with the idea of trying to maintain a speed that is faster than the other lanes on I-85.
SRTA has found the need to increase prices in the HOT lanes to at least $10 at the worst times of morning drive on I-85/southbound, meaning that demand for those lanes is likely more than ever. That is yet another indicator that traffic these days is as bad or worse than it ever has been in Atlanta. So keeping those HOT lanes moving at a reasonable speed is harder and harder.
We fly over those lanes every weekday and examine them on traffic cameras - they often are not much faster than the free lanes. But enough people are buying (literally) into the idea that they are and paying dollars to shave precious minutes off of their commutes.
Georgia’s transportation funding conundrum is another big reason the HOT rates continue to increase. SRTA and the GDOT added those lanes on I-85 to, yes, try and alleviate traffic, by making the HOV lane accessible to anyone willing to pay. But the bigger reason is because they need the money for Georgia’s roads.
Transportation funding is a huge question for Georgia’s future and GDOT and Georgia lawmakers need answers quickly. They have made no secret that managed toll lanes on major highways are a big step into to trying to make up for the budget money lost to declining revenue from the gas tax (more fuel efficient cars) and the ever-eroding transportation budget.
As demand on the roads increases, the number of toll lanes and the prices in them must also increase. At some point, HOT rates will hit a ceiling, but they aren’t there now or likely anytime soon.
More managed lanes are coming on Interstate 75 and Interstate 575 in the northwest corridor and on I-75 on the south side. Those lanes will be built in addition to the normal interstate lanes, which help traffic more and also cost more. Expect the same pattern of pricing on those “Lexus Lanes” - as opponents so affectionately call them - as the steadily increasing tolls have been on I-85.
Two lessons from the new $10 price height in the I-85 HOT lanes feed into each other. There are more and more people on the roads, which drives the prices up. And that high traffic demand creates a thirst for needed revenue and, thus, a price increase.
