High Occupancy Isn’t Carpooling

Instead of concerning ourselves about the design of the HOV lane, the real concern should be the lane’s purpose. The fact is this feel good, politically correct concept from the ’70s is an abysmal failure.

To begin with, HOV has nothing to do with carpooling. The right to drive on these lanes is only determined by how many passengers are in the vehicle. To drive in an HOV lane, no proof is necessary that a car has actually been left at home and its passengers have pooled together in another car.

The disconnect between HOV and car sharing is even more glaringly obvious because in counting car passengers, included are children and other non–car owners. Obviously, none of these people gave up a car to car pool. Also, if people were really carpooling, where are the parking lots where the car poolers are leaving their cars? There are none.

Throughout California, these multimillion-dollar HOV lanes remain relatively empty. In the adjacent lanes, in bumper to bumper traffic, you’ll find the other 92 percent of drivers, whose taxes paid for this senseless idea.