A lawsuit filed by Arlington County last month claims the lanes benefitwealthy white people and discriminates against minorities. (This is getting ridiculous. — Ed)
There’s a new turn in the debate over high occupancy toll lanes or HOT lanes.
Alawsuit filed by Arlington County last month claims the lanes benefitwealthy white people and discriminates against minorities. While theonly rule to get in the HOV lanes on Interstate 395 is you must havethree people in the car, Arlington claims adding HOT lanes would cutout 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 theHOT lanes, “encourage and enable a financially-able, privileged classof suburban and rural, primarily Caucasian residents from Stafford andSpotsylvania counties operating single occupancy vehicles (“SOV”)unimpeded access on toll lanes.” In other words, it benefits wealthy white people.