E-mailers mostly revile new toll lanes

Utah's first toll lanes are opening today on I-15, but there are already critics who say the lanes are unsafe, stupid and even "white-supremacy elitist."

A Deseret Morning News survey of 109 e-mails obtained through an open-records request from the Utah Department of Transportation shows that drivers have two top issues with the toll lanes, or "express lanes." The first is that new striping doesn't allow motorists to exit when they want, which some said is unsafe, stupid and inconvenient.

A second worry was that the express lanes allow the rich to bypass traffic. For $50 a month, solo drivers can use the lanes, which are free for carpoolers, drivers with clean-fuel vehicles and motorcyclists. The express lanes are a single lane on northbound I-15 and one on the southbound side of the highway.

The e-mails were from a 10-day period beginning Aug. 8. That's just a few days after UDOT restriped the lanes to limit access points. Most of the e-mails were negative.

"As a result of these stripes, I and almost all others I have talked to will be substantially less likely to use the express lane because once one gets in, one is reasonably trapped, thus defeating the purpose of the express lane in the first place," said a writer named Jerry.

Another writer, John-Paul, commented: "This has to be the most flagrant misuse of taxpayers money to benefit the rich. Why not call it what it is: white-supremacy elitist toll lane."

UDOT spokesman Nile Easton said Thursday that the agency has responded to all e-mails and calls about the express lanes. UDOT is also working to add new signs to the highway to clarify where people can enter and exit, Easton said.

The lanes, which stretch 38 miles from Salt Lake City to Orem, are separated from the general-purpose lanes by two double white lines. At 15 points along this route, motorists can enter or exit. The access points are indicated by a broken white line. They do not correlate with interchange locations.

Easton said that restricted access to express lanes is the norm around the country. Many places, including Denver, have concrete barriers separating the lanes from regular lanes. If there were room on I-15 to do that, UDOT would have installed concrete barriers, Easton said.

Still, the agency hopes the double white lines will help limit "extreme weaves" in and out of the express lanes that cause accidents, Easton said.