Years ago, I worked at a small (minded) agency in Orange County that had The Toll Roads. The agency is no longer around, but the Toll Roads are. To use them, you need a FasTrak transponder loaded up with cash credits from a credit card. Sensors on the freeway read it as you fly by and deduct the toll automatically.
This was all well and good for private toll roads, but when the city of L.A. decided to try it on the carpool lanes on the Harbor Freeway - 110 to you and me - I was against it.
My thinking was I'm a taxpayer, and damn it those lanes should be mine, dare I say all of ours, free of charge. It was just another instance of the man keeping me down. And by down I mean gridlocked.
But I should've known better to stand, or sit, between the city and a lucrative revenue stream.
It only took one instance of being late to a show at the Music Center because of traffic to get me thinking maybe I should give this FasTrak thing a try.
Here's what I discovered: the carpool lanes, now called Metro Express Lanes, totally rock. More importantly, they roll.
The price is based on time of day and how congested the freeway is. Most of the time, if I have two or more people in the car, there's no charge to use the lane. I set the transponder to one, two or three riders. And to keep me honest, they have cameras to check how many people are actually in my car if there's a dispute.
It's become like anything else I pay for by having money withdrawn automatically - once I bit the bullet, my wallet didn't even feel it.
Plus, with as much business and as many appointments and lunches that I have in L.A., it's paid for itself several times over in time saved.
Sure I feel the hostility from other drivers not in the express lanes, as they just sit with their cars idling, inhaling exhaust and working on their hand gestures.
But as I fly by, blasting E Street Radio and getting where I need to be on time, I'm in sort of a fugue state. I don't even notice them anymore.
I'll say it because it's true: I was wrong about using FasTrak.
If you feel the need for speed, velcro that little sucker to your windshield and get moving.
