One Man's Fight to Stop the HOT Lane

Howard Rodgers is tired of traffic. He believed the  would ease his commute from Lawrenceville to Atlanta. Instead, he says his commute has doubled. “It’s gone from taking me 45 minutes in each direction to get home, to over an hour and a half, two hours each commute.”

So Rodgers started a grassroots campaign to put the brakes on the HOT Lane.

On Sunday, Rodgers and his family—who are also tired of the commute—set up camp outside of the . They were asking other commuters who were fed up with the HOT Lane to sign a petition.

Although “Stop the HOT Lane” only received a few dozen sign-ups in that day, according to the group’s website, more than 1,100 people have given their digital signature online or via email. 

“The plan is to take them (the signatures) to the governor, the SRTA, the Gwinnett Board of Commissioners and the Federal DOT,” Rodgers told Patch.

Rodgers says the HOT Lane is unfair to Gwinnett residents and costing commuters lots of money in this already tough economy. “It amounts to an extra tax to the citizens of Gwinnett County and any point north on 85,” said Rodgers. “To adjust the toll based on the number of people in the lane or the traffic pattern for the hour basically amounts to price gouging. If you put a gas station owner out on the corner and he tells you he’s going to charge you a dollar more per gallon based on the number of people at his business at any given time, that amounts to price gouging.”

Tim Gray is Rodgers’ father-in-law. While he does not have to commute far to his job from his home in Stone Mountain, but still travels on I-85 for work delivering and picking up signs. “I’ve only actually seen one car in the HOT Lane all week,” said Gray. “But I have noticed traffic congestion in the other lanes because there are less people using the HOT Lane.”

When the , Rodgers did not think it would have such a negative affect on his life. “It honestly didn’t seem like it was going to affect me the way that it has,” said Rodgers adding how government officials touted the HOT Lane as a great thing and will improve the lives of those who travel on I-85.  “It’s turned out to be a nightmare,” added Rodgers.  

Rodgers says spending more time in his car means spending less time with his family. “Now I’m not the guy who’s at home at night to see my kids. I’m the guy who gets home later, when it’s bath time or bed time.”