$40 road tolls offer insight into commuter psychology

Re:$40 road tolls offer insight into commuter psychology by CalRobert on Thursday December 07, 2017 @09:10AM (#15870053)

Or, people who don't have a lot of money but really, really need to get there in a hurry can use them too. See: late for job interview, in labour, late for flight, etc.

Also if you're driving a vehicle you own you're already not among the poorest folks out there.

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Re:$40 road tolls offer insight into commuter psychology by colanderman on Thursday December 07, 2017 @09:27AM (#15870187)

I agree with your first point, but:

> Also if you're driving a vehicle you own you're already not among the poorest folks out there.

Is an incorrect notion. Poor people don't not drive (how could they not, to drive across the city from their not-served-by-public-transit residence to their minimum-wage job?), they drive shitty cars. Certainly, I owned a vehicle out of necessity when a $40 expense would have been unthinkable for me. That's half a days' wages for many people. 2.5% of your month's income is a LOT, especially after spending half of it on housing.

Sure, you're correct that the destitute don't own cars, but there's a large swath of the population more well-off than "destitute" but not so well-off as to be able to ever spend $40 on something that is not an absolute necessity.

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