🚀 go-pugleaf

In dc.driving, ata@hfsi.uucp (John Ata FSO) writes:
>
>Dan, I'm having a hard time following your logic.  Dulles Toll
>Road has 2 lanes.  There exists heavy traffic congestion.  Dulles
>Toll Road is widened to 3 lanes (causing massive delays.) Traffic
>flows smoothly.  Dulles takes away one lane and is made into a
>lane which no one uses or will use in the forseeable future (Even
>Dulles's own estimate is 7% will go HOV, which means that 93% if
>the traffic will remain in the other two lanes).

Let's try crunching some rough numbers.  Let's say you are right
about traffic flowing freely.  That means that the congested cars
are getting 20mpg and the freeflying ones are getting 25mpg.  Now
then, let x be the number of cars with one person in them, and y
be the number with three people in them.  Then the pollution
produced with the HOV-3 scheme could be represented by:

x/20mpg + y/25mpg

And the pollution produced without HOV could be represented by:

x/25mpg + 3y/25mpg

This means that if one out of every nine cars is HOV, you have
equivalent pollution and fuel consumption rates.  You have significantly
increased the number of people the road can handle, thus decreasing
the need to increase taxes and pave over more of NVA.

If the population and number
of jobs on the Dulles corridor increases, which it surely must
now that the new board chairman has declared that Fairfax is open
for business (when was it closed?), then the percentage of cars
which are HOV-3 will increase because that lane is horribly 
underused (according to your own testimony) and the regular lanes
are jammed, thus we will exceed the break even point and we
will save gas and pollution.

Since the use of carpools is inconvenient, those who do this for
their country should be compensated.  I would say that the
financial incentive, plus halving of commuting time is what they
deserve.  I really don't understand your attitude, except by
assigning qualities to your character which I don't assign
without more evidence.

>
>BTW, you say with a straight face that the problem is too many
>cars!  This sounds like someone espousing the idea that the
>solution to Washington's high murder problem is to reduce the
>population.

Although you were not serious, overpopulation of the D.C.
area is the cause of many problems here.