A recently announced plan by the San Bernardino County Association of Governments (SANBAG) to convert carpool lanes on the 10 and 15 freeways to toll lanes will not realize the proposal’s intended purpose, i.e., to reduce traffic in the carpool lanes. Rather, it will temporarily serve to push freeway carpool lane traffic out of the carpool “frying pan” into the main lanes “fire.”

Apparently (although not explicitly), the proposal is based on a concept as old as capitalism itself, “price elasticity of demand.” The theory is that, when a price is placed, or increased, on a good, demand for that good decreases. Therefore, SANBAG theorizes, if it puts a toll on the carpool lanes, traffic in those lanes will decrease.

The trouble is that, while price elasticity is a compelling theory, it doesn’t always work in practice. This is because, as economists have long recognized, demand for some goods is simply “inelastic.” That is, no matter how much is charged for some goods, people will still want them as much as ever.

Freeway carpool travel in San Bernardino appears to be just such an inelastic, or marginally elastic, “good.” This is because there are few options to freeway travel to work, school and essential services. Moreover, the number of those who need to travel to work or school will only get larger as the economy revives and population grows. Therefore, if carpool lane users want to escape the tolls, they can do so only by shifting to main freeway lanes, making those lanes even more congested. In short, pricing carpool lanes will only serve to increase congestion in the other traffic lanes, thus exacerbating the problem for carpool lane users and main lane users alike.

It might be possible to slightly reduce carpool lane traffic by, among other things: (1) a well thought out and SANBAG supported rideshare program; and/or (2) raising the number of persons qualified to use the carpool lanes from two per vehicle to three per vehicle, which would also encourage shared rides. But slapping a toll on a carpool lane or freeway segment, without due consideration of the lack of options and consequent inelastic character of utilization, simply punishes taxpaying, carpool using citizens who in the past have cooperated in the effort to increase per vehicle ridership, and who now want nothing more than to get to work on time.