Ramp meters move congestion from freeways onto the onramps and, occasionally, onto surface streets if you don't make the onramps long enough. So let's create a system where you can bypass the ramp meter if you have a reservation. You would log into your transponder account and choose an onramp and place a bid for your preferred time slot. Then you can use the left lane of the onramp. People without reservations would use the right lane.

Besides giving people an opportunity to bypass the onramp queue, this would help keep your taxes low because (1) the revenue from the bids would be used for future maintenance and improvements to the freeway, and (2) because people will avoid the freeway during rush hour, there will be less of a need to widen the freeway.