[jburwell]

As someone who lives in the region, the lanes are complete gouging. They diverted a tremendous amount of tax dollars to build them, and then turned them over to a private company to collect these dynamic tolls. Part of the deal is that cars with 3+ people don't pay tolls.

The 495 corridor is one of the worst traffic areas in the United States -- the number of lanes needs to be doubled to support current demand. In past snow storms, it has jammed up so severely that cars ran out of gas sitting in traffic. When severe weather occurs, Virginia needs to eliminate the tolls and open up as many lanes as possible. We paid for the lanes, and we should be able to use them when we need them most.