ARLINGTON, Va. - There's a new turn in the debate over high occupancy toll lanes or HOT lanes.
A lawsuit filed by Arlington County last month claims the lanes benefit wealthy white people and discriminates against minorities. While the only rule to get in the HOV lanes on Interstate 395 is you must have three people in the car, Arlington claims adding HOT lanes would cut out 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 the HOT lanes, "encourage and enable a financially-able, privileged class of suburban and rural, primarily Caucasian residents from Stafford and Spotsylvania counties operating single occupancy vehicles ("SOV") unimpeded access on toll lanes."
In other words, it benefits wealthy white people.
A few pages later, the suit claims the Federal Highway Administration and the Virginia Department of Transportation failed to do the proper environmental analysis and that "their actions also constituted civil rights violations as they discriminated against minority and low income communities."
Arlington County Chair Barbara Favola says the race issue only arose because the environmental review includes socioeconomic impact.
"It is not our intention to play a race card. I think that's a very divisive approach," Favola told FOX5.
http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/local/092109_arlington_race_a_factor_in_hot_lanes
