Study: Wealthier Drivers Use Toll Lanes More Often
Wealthier metro Atlanta residents use the High Occupancy Toll lanes on I-85 more often than their middle and lower-income counterparts, according to a recent report from the Southern Environmental Law Center. But state officials say the study doesn’t tell the whole story.
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The tolls for the lanes change based on demand. So, when traffic is heavier, the toll increases. SELC senior attorney Brian Gist says the center used zip code data to determine whether there’s a connection between income level and usage.
“What we found was that there was a correlation between income and rates of use for those zip codes,” Gist says. “So, as the median income zip codes increased, so did the usage rates for those zip codes.”
In other words, the more money you have, the more likely you are to spend up to $7 a trip to avoid traffic. But Bert Brantley, the deputy executive director of the State Road and Tollway Authority, says the report omits a key group.
“They exempted all non-tolled trips from their analysis,” Brantley says. “That’s about 14% of the trips that we see on the I-85 HOT lane. And those are transit and carpoolers. And so when you exempt the very people that you are purporting to argue on their behalf, then I think it skews the results.”
Gist says the SELC wanted to focus on drivers who are choosing to pay the toll.
The report made recommendations, as state transportation officials plan to build additional toll lanes in metro Atlanta. Gist says the suggestions include continuing to let carpools exempt the toll.
“There’s a significant number of users who are choosing to carpool and they’re using that as a way to obtain the benefit of these lanes. And so, I think, as a policy measure, that’s something that we should be looking at elsewhere to ensure that people are able to receive the benefits of these lanes, even if they aren’t able to pay the toll.”
But Brantley says the new lanes won’t exempt carpools. The toll lanes on I-85 do because they were converted from carpool lanes.
Brantley says state and federal transportation officials will issue their own report on toll lane usage by the end of the year.
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