LETTER: HOV lanes are a waste of money

I, too, detest the wasted money spent on the HOV lanes (Feb. 9 editorial). From my personal observation, it seems the great majority of vehicles in the HOV lanes are those “scofflaws” you mention. Those lanes made a lot of sense when they were “express lanes” and got lots of use, and I’d be very happy if local HOV lanes went back to being express lanes.

The Salt Lake City metro area is also afflicted with HOV lanes, but that state has found reasonable compromise between fealty to the enviro lords and their vassals and the rest of the folks who actually use those roads and pay for those wasted lanes. Utah has instituted a toll system, using some sort of fast-pass system, to allow anyone to use the HOV lanes for a pittance of a toll. For a serious commuter, that may be a bargain compared to the time and gas spent crawling in the regular lanes during rush hour.

I’m sure officials at the Nevada Department of Transportation have a great answer as to why they do not implement something similar in the Las Vegas area. I wonder what it is and if it makes sense to anyone not beholden to NDOT.