In New York City, "congestion pricing" will require motorists to pay a fee of $10 or more to drive into Midtown Manhattan. The plan is expected to generate $1 billion annually. Other regressive highway fees are spreading rapidly. "Lexus Lanes" allow motorists who can afford it to whiz past those who can’t. The evolution of this form of highway robbery underscores government indifference toward the poor, as well as its fascination with digital tolling.

Initially, express lanes were known as High Occupancy Vehicle lanes, a reasonable effort by state and local governments to encourage carpooling. Over time, pollution-conscious officials expanded HOV lane access on some highways to single-occupant electric or hybrid vehicles.

Then greed and technology took over and many localities—primarily in zones near Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.—decided that express lanes would be open to anyone, whether they carpooled or not and regardless of the type of car they drove, if they simply paid a fee.

What had been a fair method of cutting highway congestion became one of the nation’s most regressive tax ploys, with some commuters paying $10 or more to travel in the fast lanes. This was impossible before the advent of EZ-Pass and similar collection systems.

As for congestion pricing, it has been implemented in several large European cities including London, reportedly reducing auto traffic by about 10% in the central business district. Los Angeles is considering a plan to charge motorists $4 to enter the city’s most trafficked area during rush hours.

Most of these programs come with admirable goals. Money collected from express lanes is usually used for highway repairs, and New York’s proposed congestion pricing would fund improvements to the dilapidated subway system.

But that doesn’t make the charges fair, or any less regressive. Too often in government the road to exploitation is paved with good intentions.

(c) Peter Funt. This column originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal.