Tonight's Rant: HOV/Carpool lane

"wiffleballtony" (wiffleballtony)
08/19/2015 at 22:13 • Filed to: None

I want to talk about the HOV or Carpool lane. For those of you that are unaware, the HOV or Carpool lane is a government sponsored social experiment where the government attempts to change public behaviors through behavioral reinforcement. The idea behind the HOV/Carpool lane is to reduce fuel and pollution by reducing the number of vehicles on the road. To accomplish this the government creates a lane of traffic that can only be utilized by cars with more than one occupant.

Who uses it?

Families : Primarily two types. Its either grandma and grandpa heading to the mall. Or mom taking her kids to school. While technically this is within the law but the fact of the matter is that there is no trip reduction, because the occupants would be making the same trip regardless.

Alternative fuel vehicles : In this case, there’s usually only one person in the car. Which kind of defeats the point of high occupancy and carpooling. And these cars are usually being driven well over the speed that they are the most efficient at. And the less efficient cars are forced to sit in traffic and burn even more fuel. How is that saving anything?

Cheaters : These people aren’t in any way adhering to the spirit of the law or the law itself. They feel that their time is somehow more valuable than the rest of us. Which is funny because usually they are driving something with doors that don’t match the rest of the car.

Why the doesn’t HOV/Carpool work : This comes down to two basic problems. First, many places in the US everything is decentralized. Not everyone works in Downtown, and lives in the same suburb. As a result we are all driving to different locations. On top of that in order to qualify for this you need to find someone to be in the car with you. Which means you need to find someone at your work who lives close and has the same schedule as you. OR you find a stranger that works the same schedule and works very close by. Neither of those are easy to find or attractive. As a result, the population pays for an extra lane of traffic that is under utilized. The solution is reduce the need to drive to work, IE telecommuting.

DISCUSSION (16)

blacktruck18 > wiffleballtony
08/19/2015 at 22:22

Don’t worry Washington state has figured this out. On some roads you can pay to drive in the HOV lanes with no passengers. I am thinking eventually this will become a nationwide standard.

wiffleballtony > blacktruck18
08/19/2015 at 22:35

I think Utah does as well. I would pay for that privilege. I would also pay for that lane to be a higher speed lane.

dogisbadob > blacktruck18
08/19/2015 at 22:38

You can pay to drive on HOV lanes solo anywhere! In the form of a ticket :p

McMike > wiffleballtony
08/19/2015 at 22:38

How do you feel about motorcycles and slugs?

blacktruck18 > wiffleballtony
08/19/2015 at 22:40

I would too, but, it seems shady. I am sure that wasn’t the plan when they thought up HOV lanes but someone working for the state, saw an opportunity to make money so they took it.

blacktruck18 > dogisbadob
08/19/2015 at 22:41

True, but this is easier and cheaper.

wiffleballtony > McMike
08/19/2015 at 22:47

As long as the motorcycle doesn’t drive at 55 mph (like every Harley Davidson ever) I’m cool with it. Never seen “slugs” before, seems a lot like taking the bus.

wiffleballtony > dogisbadob
08/19/2015 at 22:48

Yeah but the ticket purchase is one-time and it can happen at any time. Not exactly conducive to saving time. Also there is the risk of getting shot, by the purveyor of said ticket.

BigBlock440 > wiffleballtony
08/20/2015 at 00:30

I don’t have them here, so when traveling on my honeymoon, I was hesitant to use them. Eventually I figured they’re for more than one person,so hell yeah, I’m going to take advantage of them, but just driving down the road with my wife didn’t seem like it warranted a special lane.

AdverseMartyr > McMike
08/20/2015 at 00:37

Slugs sounds exactly like what the HOV lane is supposed to accomplish.

AdverseMartyr > wiffleballtony
08/20/2015 at 00:39

Motorcycles are the answer to using the HOV lane. If everyone was on a motorcycle the world would be a better place.

facw > blacktruck18
08/20/2015 at 02:01

HOT (high-occupancy, toll) lanes are increasingly common because the tolls can support construction and maintenance of new highways, or allow a cash-strapped municipality to raise funds by selling to a private operator. It would likely be cheaper in the long run to do this themselves, but it’s hard to get voters to agree to new borrowing in the current environment. It’s also a bit more “fair” than just converting a road to a toll road, since people can still drive on the non-HOT portion for free, and HOV’ers can drive in the HOV lane as before.

wiffleballtony > AdverseMartyr
08/20/2015 at 09:36

But then I’d have to be outside when it’s 110 degrees, in leather.

wiffleballtony > BigBlock440
08/20/2015 at 09:38

You better believe I use em when I’m with the wife. But yeah, no reason for a special lane. They could have called it the family time lane.

AdverseMartyr > wiffleballtony
08/20/2015 at 13:53

Well, if you drive an old enough car that isn’t a big change. The big change would be that you keep moving even when everyone else stops (if you are on the west coast.) And You can go with perforated leather to keep cool or use textiles.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > wiffleballtony
08/24/2015 at 12:05

There are also those of us for whom a HOT lane is great, because the value of our time is measured in hundreds of dollars per hour, or if we are not at our day job, we double or triple our time cost, possibly getting into thousands of dollars per hour. (If another company wanted me to work outside my standard hours, I’d tell them they my effective rate is triple my salary, because I value my non-work time a lot more than my time at the office, or in my car in traffic at a standstill).

So I like the idea of congestion priced HOT lanes.