Highway Ethics

Astral Facts, September 2008
Highway Ethics
Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Talking out of Hand from Both Sides of the Mouth.

One of the skills/activities in the Humanities Sciences is the definition, application and observation of ethics and moral standards. Literary and Humanties criticism comes through the discussion of how the “texts” of the culture endorse, challenge, or even protest such ethical and moral belief systems. In the olden days, these “texts” were primarily the religious writings and political documents, but these days, movies, music, cellular phones, television programs (especially the commercials), etc. that influence or reflect social behavior can be included as “texts” of the culture.

The Humanities Scientists then observe and comment on such texts, often using particular perspectives. Thus, the feminist critic would note how the text tends to affect women by imposing or challenging definition, stereotype, empowerment, oppression, etc. Other critics might use psychoanalytical constructs, Marxist thought, Islamic theology, political theory, literary techniques, etc. as the basis for critical analysis.

Here’s a case in point:

Here in the Puget Sound area, we’re trying something new to deal with the traffic congestion problems and the underutilized “Carpool” lanes. (Actually, they are “HOV” lanes, meaning “High Occupancy Vehicles.” Those who complain about the mother [or father] and baby using the lanes because having the baby in the car is not reducing traffic congestion [The baby wouldn’t be taking a solo trip in a vehicle anyhow] obviously have neglected to note the meaning of this nor apparently have they had to deal with rushing somewhere with a baby "that close" to filling the last clean diaper! Those parents have my blessings to unlimited use of the HOV lanes. Of course, others may prefer to have parent and baby sitting next to them in the bus.)

The solution now being used on Hwy 167 is to let those SOV’s (not a typo- this refers to Solely Occupied Vehicles or something like it) pay a fee to use the HOV lanes. These people get some kind of transmitter/transponder unit, charge it up with money, and then “the going rate” is deducted if the vehicle is in the HOV lanes. This “going rate” (pun intended here but not in the baby example) is adjusted up or down according to how heavy the traffic is in the other lanes.

Of course, this all seems nice because those who subscribe to the “time is money” view of life can then pay to save the time, and the money is hopefully used for the benefit of the rest of us who either conscientiously travel in high occupancies or value the relationship of time and money a bit differently.

In many ways, this seems to be a practical solution. Nonetheless, many Humanities Scientists would see a certain philosophical and ethical perspective getting privileged status in this way.

Obstensively, the main focus seems to be on environmental sensitivity. Thus, the clogged mainline highways should be an incentive for people to carpool and “HOV-it" to save time. However, the other [primary] message seems to be that the people with money don’t have to subscribe to this value system – like Donald, they can “trump” the situation because of economic status!

It seems to me that the commodity that is driving (pun intended) this situation is time. The value is being placed on the time that is being saved. Since this is the case, my modest proposal would be to let those people pay in time increments.

In other words, let community service have a value according to the time invested. So if someone spends an hour volunteering on some community project, give that person X number of credits to be added to the transponder total, say one credit for every twenty minutes spent. Then when the same person is driving as an SOV and in a hurry, that person can “cash in” whatever the “going rate” is, assuming that person has accrued that much credit.

And if some people’s time is too important to them to invest in their community, then just let them idle in traffic with those other “too important” people.


Walter Lowe
English Faculty
Green River Community College

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices in the HS (Humanities/Science) Building.