As if driving in Los Angeles could be any more expensive or miserable.
L.A., the city where all of your wildest dreams can become true… you just have to get there first.
If you’re reading this, chances are, you just finished making your daily commute. How long were you stuck in traffic – thirty minutes, an hour, maybe two? Overcrowding has been a problem of the city for quite some time and now Southern California lawmakers are trying to fix the problem by charging motorists to drive.
The city was built around having a car but congestion has gotten so bad that L.A. Metro officials want to explore a number of things like the possibility of converting carpool lanes into toll lanes, taxing drivers based on how many miles they drive, and charging vehicles to enter some neighborhoods or business districts.
It sounds crazy! Especially considering that having a car as a Californian feels equivalent to having freedom. However, commuters in major cities like London have been charging a toll to get into the downtown areas and Washington D.C. commuters have been paying as much as $46.75 to ride Interstate 66 during rush hour!
The movement may seem unfortunate (because who wants to pay, even more, to drive around) but apparently, the city hasn’t been making enough money through charging gas taxes. The higher costs to drive would contribute to taking vehicles off of the road, reducing air pollution, and raising extra revenue to improve the city’s highway network as well as expand mass transit before the 2028 Summer Olympics. It’s estimated that charging vehicles by the mile would raise over $102 billion in 10 years with a downtown entrance fee would raise over $12 billion!