HOT Lanes, Government At Its Tax Spending Worst

New numbers on the HOT lanes and how financially inefficient they really are...

Here are the revenues...

Between 5 and 10 a.m. Monday, 339 solo drivers paid to enter the northbound lane, in fairly light traffic, said Craig Stone, urban-corridors administrator for the state Department of Transportation. Just 29 drivers used the southbound HOT lane.

The tolls, which increase as traffic gets heavier, reached $2.25 at 7:15 a.m. northbound at 277th Street, but Stone said no one paid that rate to use the HOT lanes. The most anyone paid, he said, was $2. The minimum toll was 50 cents, while the average paid was $1.04.

For the afternoon commute, between 2 and 7 p.m., 284 vehicles used the HOT lanes southbound and 60 used them northbound. They paid an average of 72 cents and had an average time saving of two minutes.

The highest the toll Monday afternoon was $1.25, and the highest time savings was 4 minutes.

That would be $557.04 for Monday. And now for the cost side of that financial ledger.

The federal government contributed $5 million toward the state's $18 million startup costs.

18 Million... that does not include the day to day ongoing cost which I am reasonably sure is way, way more than $557.04.

So at this rate, at $557 a day, the startup costs should be repaid in about 88.5 years. Someone may want to take another look at the cost benefit analysis for this project.