[BonjGopu]

Sometimes it seems like the wrong people are making the decisions.

Many years ago (I don't know exactly) Atlanta put in HOV lanes on the freeways. It was to encourage carpooling. Motorcycles, Buses, and Cars with 2+ occupants could use it freely, or you got a ticket.

That changed about a month ago. Atlanta converted those lanes to a toll lane that anyone could use as long as you paid. But it's only free if you have 3+ occupants in the car (as long as you register on the system that you will be carpooling 20-30 minutes before driving in the lane). I don't know exact figures, but I've been hearing costs of $60 to $120 million to have the lanes converted.

Except now, almost nobody wants to spend the money to use those lanes and a lot of people are complaining that it's a lot harder to find a 3rd person to carpool with. The result is Atlanta coughed up millions of dollars for a system barely anyone is using and has made traffic worse in an area that already had bad traffic problems.

I have not been through the heart of Atlanta since the system was put in, but on the parts of the freeway I do travel on, I have yet to see a single car in that lane and they are always reporting how empty the lane is on the radio. It's one of those hand on the forehead moments asking yourself, wth were they thinking.