carpool easier with ebay?
Oh my! Bidding For The Carpool Lane On eBay
Some legislators up in Washington state are interested in using eBay to auction off permits for the carpool lane. They figure it can help raise some money, and also will show just how much people value the carpool lane.
Great, so my state is gonna be known for something really odd now!!! Why eBay? I don’t get it, why that would be better than selling at the licensing department, so they could regulate it.
call me confused![via Techdirt]
Comments
It’s all PR, babe... the press LOVES stories about weird eBay auctions.
Posted by: :: jozjozjoz :: | June 23, 2003 05:51 PM
that is seriously weird. ebay has serious readership though and maybe they feel like some of the crazies up north are more likely to hear about something on ebay than in the local news. sadly it is probably true.
Posted by: jane | June 23, 2003 07:21 PM
It’s weird, that’s for sure but it kind of upsets me. I traffic in Washington state, particularly the Puget Sound is already horrible enough. Overcrowding the carpool lane isn’t going to help. Oh I wish I didn’t commute.
Posted by: Carla | June 23, 2003 09:28 PM
Something like that would be pointless here in the Washington DC area - people just ignore the HOV (high occupancy vehicle = carpool lane) restrictions anyway. I have to admit that I’m guilty of it myself sometimes.
Posted by: Meredith | June 24, 2003 08:58 AM
The reason they are looking to use Ebay (I think that article says it, too) is because they aren’t sure how much people are willing to pay for HOV access, and of course, if you want to find out how much something is worth, sell it on Ebay!
The idea sounds like it’s not even close to being real, and even if it were, the Ebay thing would only last as long as it took to figure out how much they should charge, and then it would become standardized.
Posted by: Anne | June 24, 2003 09:02 AM