SALT LAKE CITY -- A majority of Salt Lake County residents responding to a recent survey oppose the Utah Department of Transportation plan to open car-pool lanes on Interstate 15 to motorists willing to pay $50 a month for the privilege.

The high-occupancy vehicle lanes are reserved for vehicles with more than one occupant, buses, motorcycles and certain low-pollution vehicles.

UDOT contends the HOV lanes are underused and making them toll lanes will reduce the congestion in the regular lanes.

However, a poll conducted in Salt Lake County for KSL-TV and the Deseret Morning News found about 61 percent of the respondents opposed letting individual drivers use the car-pool lanes for a fee and 91 percent said they would not pay the fee to use the lanes.

The poll, which sampled 571 county residents, was taken May 1-4 by Dan Jones & Associates. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Chuck Stolfa of Pleasant Grove said tolls are just a way for the rich to pay for privilege.

Other methods, like a general tax increase, should be used to improve capacity and help build new roads, he said.

"I believe that here in Utah, we don't like prima donnas, or those that would like to pay for privilege," Stolfa said. "I don't think there's a whole lot here in Utah that would see that as a plus."

UDOT spokesman Nile Easton said he wasn't surprised with the poll results.

"People in general don't like to pay for something they perceive that they have gotten for free in the past," he said. "It doesn't change the fact that the lanes will work and will make commuting better for people."

Easton said UDOT has received several hundred inquiries from residents wanting to purchase a HOV lane sticker.

Plans call for 600 stickers to be sold initially, and Easton said the department was confident it can sell that many.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D4.