Orange County drivers stuck in the rush-hour snarl of the 91 freeway used to pay the highest toll in California if they wanted to slide into the faster-moving express lanes. Not anymore. A notorious stretch of the 110 freeway in Los Angeles broke the high-toll record for Southern California early Tuesday. Drivers stuck in the thick of the morning commute paid $1.40 per mile to escape into the sanctuary of the freeway's newly opened express lanes.

By comparison, the toll lanes on the 91 – long counted among the most expensive in the nation – top out at 96 cents per mile during the worst of the afternoon commute.

A handful of other transportation agencies in California have opened express lanes in recent years, giving even solo drivers the option to get around the ordinary flow of traffic for a fee. As on the 91, they set their prices based on demand, saving their highest tolls for those brake-lit moments of worst traffic.

Read more at the OC Register