🚀 go-pugleaf

HOV lanes, while intended to save us gas, work well in some areas of
the country, but not all. When they don't work, this is why:

  - far too many persons work and live in too many diverse locations
  - far too many persons have diverse working hours and employers
    are inflexible, or shift work dictates working hours
  - far too many are salaried and work late, unable to coordinate
    consistently, and thus just never bother

Gas is not saved if the other lanes are backed up for many miles,
while HOV lanes are relatively open. If the above reasons exist in
large enough percentages, then no amount of effort by the state is
going to work to change this and reach a crossover point where gas is
saved.

HOV lanes, when they do not work, but the public fails to realize
this, then are political in nature, just to win votes.

HOV lanes also penalize people who longer hours than others.
If salaried, for example, such employees are forced to use backed up
lanes getting to work, and then work late. Yet those who have regular,
shorter hours are more likely to coordinate and be able to carpool and
use those wide open HOV lanes. This is an injustice to harder working
people to punish them in this way for working longer hours,
usually for free.

HOV lanes, also while not breaking the letter of the law, break the
spirit of the law with respect to federal racketeering laws. The state
"coerces" people to carpool and penalizes those who don't, that is,
when the HOV does not work and regular lanes are backed up all the
time.

HOV lanes, when on the left side without barriers, serve to back up
traffic and waste gas when slower vehicles use these lanes. This is
because those in the lane to the right are intimidated and might pass
slower or not at all, backing up traffic in the regular lanes and thus
wasting gas. Now this backing up does not occur at this point in the
flow, but in the usual accordion effect several miles behind this
point. (I saw this happen just the other day.)

Ironically, carpools containing 2 or more persons, are very likely to
engage in conversation. This distracts the driver and slows the
vehicle down. If in the HOV lane, it has the effect mentioned in the
previous paragraph.

Many variables and dynamics govern the success or failure of HOV.
If in the long run the average time for all commuters is not reduced,
but instead increased due to stop-and-go backups and if there are
insufficient numbers of carpools, the net result can be more wasted
gas, not less.

Personally, I think that the real solutions to congestion and saving
gas lies in real fixes, such as continued efforts in improved mileage
for vehicles and eventually electric, and the number of lanes on
highways should be proportional to the tax base (but the stats show
the politicians have not kept up and have probably squandered our
money, such as on baseball and football stadiums.)