Was that not a joke recently that Ontario is going to have a lottery to test paying for highway space on public highways? Was April Fools Day held over? That makes the Wynne cabinet the fools. High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes were just silly. HOT is stupid.
And they think Ontario drivers are going to put up with this nonsense?
This is not toll roads we are talking about here. They are thinking of charging people to drive in a single reserved lane on public highways. And with the provincial taxes we pay at the gas pumps we sure as hell own these publicly funded highways. The congestion on those roads across the province tells us very clearly that the stupid politicians are not doing their job with our gas taxes. We do not have the highways needed to handle the needs of today’s passenger vehicle, bus, service vehicle and truck traffic.
Reserving lanes on congested highways does not work. It reminds us the addle-brained drivers in Massachusetts who routinely drive on the shoulders of that state’s highways. They claim they have no choice.
The HOV lanes in Ontario have been a failure since day one. The guys with the life-size dolls are the funniest ploy to use the lanes. It hardly took us long to realize that those lanes were at the mercy of the slowest driver.
And HOV lanes are already almost impossible to police. What are we going to see? Cars flying flags that say they have won the lottery and paid the price? Try leaving that outside your vehicle in a public parking lot.
And to add insult to all of this foolishness, the amount of money the province could earn from a HOT lane is not enough to build a kilometre of new controlled access highway in Ontario.
There was an era in Ontario around the turn of the 19th Century and into the early part of the 20th Century when Ontario led North America in use of interurban electric trams. They delivered goods and passengers reliably and quickly and cheaply throughout much of Sothern Ontario. And they did it at the time without all the dithering and indecision of the planners. The planners know that electrifying the GO Train service throughout the province can more than double the capacity of the existing commuter lines. Why is it not happening now?
-30-
Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]