Not "JerkTech", Just Business as Usual

Awhile back I read an interesting article about how a city was considering allowing wealthy people to purchase the ability for them to use car pool lanes. Rich person values time over money, city values more revenue and utilizes existing infrastructure. This article seemed like it was eluding the same out of the box thinking.

But is this "business as usual"? From my point of view these companies are no better than patent trolls, wasting everyones time and money just to protect themselves from loopholes all while making the consumer suffer more complexity (that is, more complex parking rules or restaurant reservations that need to be held with credit cards).