For those of you who live outside the Washington D.C. area, Virginia is currently in the process of creating so-called “High Occupancy/Toll” (HOT) lanes on the Washington Beltway that would allow commuters to bypass traffic if they were willing to pay a toll to use a separate lane.
Well, one of the local governments in the area has filed a lawsuit claiming that the entire concept of HOT is discriminatory:
There’s a new turn in the debate over high occupancy toll lanes or HOT lanes.
A lawsuit filed by Arlington County last month claims the lanes benefit wealthy white people and discriminates against minorities. While the only rule to get in the HOV lanes on Interstate 395 is you must have three people in the car, Arlington claims adding HOT lanes would cut out poor and minorities by defacto.
That claim doesn’t sit well with Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity (R-Springfield).
“I don’t think race or class warfare has any standing in this argument,” Herrity said.
Buried in the lawsuit filed last month, county attorneys argued the HOT lanes, “encourage and enable a financially-able, privileged class of suburban and rural, primarily Caucasian residents from Stafford and Spotsylvania counties operating single occupancy vehicles (”SOV”) unimpeded access on toll lanes.”
In other words, it benefits wealthy white people.
A few pages later, the suit claims the Federal Highway Administration and the Virginia Department of Transportation failed to do the proper environmental analysis and that “their actions also constituted civil rights violations as they discriminated against minority and low income communities.”
Arlington County Chair Barbara Favola says the race issue only arose because the environmental review includes socioeconomic impact.
“It is not our intention to play a race card. I think that’s a very divisive approach,” Favola told FOX5.
And yet, that’s exactly what you’re doing, isn’t it ?
I’ve had my doubts about this whole HOT concept from the time it was announced. The technology has never really been adequately explained, and I’ve never quite understood how it’s going to work out on a highway like the Beltway where lane changing, exiting, and entering, are a crucial part of getting around, but this is just ridiculous.
So much for a post-racial America, huh ?
Here’s a report on the issue from the local Fox affiliate:
H/T: Ed Driscoll
September 23rd, 2009 at 10:30 am
I am not from VA nor do I have to travel in this area much, but I would think this it right down the liberals’ alley. Just think – it takes money from the “rich” and redistributes it (via highway money) to all. The problem? The ones paying the bill are finally getting something! Most of the time they just want the money with no benefits!
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:12 am
Great catch Doug!
And Ms. Favola lives in a million dollar North Arlington faux craftsman home built in 1996 (meaning she tore down some other poor [immigrant perhaps?] soul’s home) walking distance to a MetroRail station and 5-minutes to the District or the Pentagon. She is in clear need of lifestyle protection.
As for Arlington’s diversity? Let me quote from its 2000 Census Highlights report,
Although Arlington is a racially
and ethnically diverse community,
its white population continued to
comprise a higher proportion of the
total population than the MSA
average. In 2000, the number of
people in Arlington that specified
white as their only race comprised
68.9 percent of the County’s
population. By comparison, whites
of one race made up 57.9 percent
of the total MSA’s population.
Since 2000 the white population in Arlington has increased by 16.3 percent and the Latino population has decreased by 8.1 percent.
I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that every piece of meaningful evidence points to Arlington becoming an increasing affluent, single race enclave for the liberal elite.