No less a publication than the New York Times Magazine ( .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) but the full article costs $3.95) has ventured into a somewhat scary area of traffic theory _ that when congestion gets to a certain point, there really isn’t much we can do about it.

Unless, that is, ““we have a lot of money.

California was first, but the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area is close behind, in the development of ““automated express toll lanes.’’ These things are an additional lane, sometimes built and run by private entities, where the well-heeled can buy themselves out of gridlock. Onboard transponders automatically charge the motorist as much as $30 for a 50-mile run around the stalled, fuming masses.

Actual rates vary depending on how bad the traffic jam actually is, as measured by sensors on the roadway.

Gridlock here, one presumes, is not yet quite bad enough for there to be big enough money in the prospect of adding lanes to I-4 or I-275 for an entrepreneur to start building highway lanes and charging for their use. But our traffic woes are getting worse pretty quickly, and the state Department of Transportation has pretty well conceded it can’t keep up.

Sustained, even worsening, gridlock is of course is essential to assure a good return on the entrepreneur’s investment.

Then comes the question of who enforces the exclusivity of these lanes, although for the most part now they are separated by concrete barriers and access to them is limited to those with transponders.

But somehow the whole concept seems ... You fill in the blank.