Pay for HOV lanes if you're riding alone?

Question:  It's been a couple of months since the new carpool lanes along the QEW in Burlington and Oakville opened  -- together with similar lanes on the 403 in Mississauga they sure makes my trips a lot faster and usually saves me from having to take the 407 toll road -- similar lanes operate on the 404 and there are plans to have HOV run on the Q all the way from Toronto to Saint Catherines.

But as we see in the States, such lanes can be easily converted from HOV (high occupancy vehicles, i.e. 2 or more occupants, buses, taxis etc.) to HOT (high occupancy toll, meaning it's a free ride if you meet the carpool rules, but you can go in if you're alone and willing to pay a toll). These exist all over the States and it's just a matter of putting a selector switch on the transponder.  Hybrid systems also exist where there's one toll schedule for soloists and another for duos or bands.  Would you be willing to pay a toll, say 50 cents or a buck, to use the fast lane if it saved you 15 to 20 minutes on your drive?  Or should those who ride alone just suck it up and stay stuck in traffic in the slow lanes?

Your comments, please ...

Vote for this post at Progressive Bloggers.