The Drew Carey Project Volume 1 - Izzit.org

DJ Ken: Well, how would that help?
Drew Carey: Well, first of all, taxpayers wouldn’t have to pay for the road. Like I was talking to
somebody from the Reason Foundation at dinner and I go what do you think we should do about
something like the 101 and he goes just double-decker it and I go “Who’s going to pay?” and he says,
“Let a private company do it and they can charge people to ride on the road. You can get a Fast Pass and
you pay 5-bucks.”
DJ John: Sure, the top deck could be for the tolls.
Drew Carey: Yes. And if you privatize it, you can have different companies bidding—I would love to
own a freeway in LA
DJ John: The Drew Carey Freeway?
Drew Carey: Yeah—Maybe the Drew Carey Freeway would look something like this snazzy doubledecked
toll road in Tampa, Florida or maybe I’d build my road underground. Here’s a tunnel that’s being
built in Paris. Tunnels that run underneath Australian cities help people get around town. The private
sector paid for all these.
Josh Lipking: Life would be much happier without the congestion.
Drew Carey: So, let’s build the Josh Lipking tunnel. Double-deck one of the freeways he uses or, hey,
how about building some special express lanes like the one accountant Cedric Allen uses.
Cedric Allen: Oh, this piece of paper - this is the billing statement for using the 91 Express Lane,168
total trips valued at a cost of $548 which people see that and they’ll go, “WOW, you spend that much?”
Drew Carey: The 91 Express Lanes isn’t your typical toll road. A private company built it in the middle
of the 91 Freeway in Orange County, California. The express lanes run right next to the regular lanes so
drivers can choose to use them or not and you don’t have to stop at toll booths. Tolls are collected
electronically from this gadget that hangs overhead. When traffic gets bad the price of the toll rises. The
OCTA owns the 91 Express Lanes. Here’s spokesman Ted Nguyen.
Ted Nguyen: The average toll is about $2.76. The low end is about $1.50 and the high end is about
$9.50.
Drew Carey: Sounds pricey but each day about 40,000 people pay the toll because the special lanes let
them zoom past slow-moving traffic. Mailman Demetrius Mikes battles through congestion on his way
home but once he hits the express lanes his commute speeds right up.
Demetrius Mikes: To me it saves you about an hour and a half to two hours.
Drew Carey: Traffic often keeps parents from picking up kids at day care on time. Imagine paying five
bucks for each minute you’re late. Cedric knows all about that.
Cedric Allen: On an average week we would probably spend about $40.00 per child times three. That’s
$120.00 a week for being a few minutes late.
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