‘Pay as you go’ is a well documented trend which, along with the division of some products and services into free (or cheap) and paid (or luxury) segments is transforming society. So if ‘economy’ and ‘business’ works for airlines, and ‘public’ or ‘private’ works for medicine and education, why not apply the same principle to roads? This is what’s happening all over the world with congestion charges to enter city centres and now it’s happening with roads which are being divided into free and paid sections. The idea is a mixture of social engineering and civil engineering. Fast lanes are being converted into paid lanes, which motorists can move into if they’re in a hurry or they’re just plain rich (‘Lexus lanes’ as some people describe them). The clever bit is that the paid lanes are not compulsory and pricing can be adjusted according to traffic flow or time of day. Payment is made instantly via electronic tags inside your car. Of course the idea isn’t new. Road tolls have been around since the invention of the motor car (longer in fact) but the idea is coming back into vogue because governments are no longer prepared to publicly finance infrastructure projects like roads. In the case of new roads this is fine, but the principle is also being applied to roads that have already been built using public money – so people are effectively paying twice. Nevertheless, the idea is sure to be a winner because people hate to wait (Americans now spend 46 hours a year sitting in traffic jams). The average speed during peak hours on ‘91 Express’ lanes in the US is 65mph compared to just 15-20mph in the free lanes. So by paying US $11 commuters can save as much as 90 minutes on a regular trip. On a slightly related note, GPS tracking technology is about to transform how people pay for car insurance. If an insurance company knows where you are in real time, risk can be assessed accordingly, allowing drivers to pay for insurance by the mile.