The left-hand shoulders of I-35W between Burnsville and downtown Minneapolis will turn into toll lanes, thanks to $133 million from U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) privateers who’ve given national transportation policy a hard turn to the right. The Washington Post reports  that Minneapolis is among five cities that beat out 21 others — along with hundreds of municipalities that used to get a share of such funding –  to win a nearly $1 billion sweepstakes for cities willing to road-test the conservative concept of “congestion pricing.” That’s transportation-planning jargon for tolls that rise and fall according to traffic levels.

  “Political appointees have spent the latter part of President Bush’s two terms laboring behind the scenes to shrink the federal role in road-building and public transportation,” the Post said. “They have also sought to turn highways into commodities that can be sold or leased to private firms and used by motorists for a price.” Drivers will find left lanes “dynamically priced” –  meaning they’re more like Coke’s “smart” vending machines  (the ones that raised prices on hot days)  than the flat fees London and (soon) New York City charge cars for entering the city.

Continued: Click on Read MoreThe project is akin to the conversion of High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes to High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes on Highway 394, for which Toll Roads News issued the plea, “Wanted: some real congestion, California style,” on behalf of planners who expected much more revenue from toll lanes that often go begging.  State matching funds are pending at the Legislature, where lawmakers of either party can’t go wrong accepting major pork for more driving lanes. As a DOT  told the Post, “It’s almost sort of un-American that we should be forced to sit and be stuck in traffic.”