'THIS IS NOT A TICKET'

[Raza]

If I had an MX5 it would be pretty easy.  Pretty easy.  Open both doors, put the driver on the left, passenger on the right.  Close Dorrs, start engine.  Drive to HOV lane, take HOV lane to work.

The HOV lane I use only requires a total of two vehicle occupants.  It also allows single rider motorcycles

While the concept of HOV lanes is foreign to me, I do get how it works.  It's just that most carpool things at jobs have four people in a group and rotating drivers.  I don't see fitting four people into an MX-5 being very practical.

[Champ]

The HOV lane I use only requires a total of two vehicle occupants.  It also allows single rider motorcycles

I love using them in the summer on my bike!

[Laconian]

How do you carpool in an MX-5?

And the bus?  I'd rather brave rush hour traffic through construction zones the whole way in a Caterham without heat or a roof in the dead of winter than take the bus. 

My friend picks me up in his Jetta. Anyways, a carpool on I-5 and I-405 is defined as just 2 people.

I'm done with all that and the bus by next month. !

[Rupert]

Working at home?

[Raza]

Working at home?

Sold his soul to Microsoft.

[Rupert]

Oh, sad.

It is much closer, though.

[Laconian]

Oh, sad.

It is much closer, though.

At least I'm getting some value for my soul, it was already being crushed by the 2 hours of daily bus riding. I won't be afraid to put an unsucky headunit in the Miata now, since I won't be parallel parking on the streets of Seattle.

[Rupert]

Yeah, that's true. Of course, now you're stuck on the Outer Rim with the Sand People. You'll never see downtown again!

[Laconian]

Is that an ethnic slur directed at our multitudes of H1-Bs?

[Rupert]

Haha, are there a lot of migrant workers in Kirkland/Bellevue?

I was just trying to make a lame Star Wars reference... It was either that, or, "stuck on the Outer Rim where the Hutts control the hyperspace lanes."

0_o

[BimmerM3]

The HOV lane I use only requires a total of two vehicle occupants.  It also allows single rider motorcycles

Atlanta has those same rules.

I always get excited when I have a passenger and I'm driving on the highway.

[Submariner]

Few citations are more worthless than a 56 in a 50 like an HOV infraction. Alas, this was only a  mailed warning by way of "a concerned motorist" as a complaint to the DOT.

Considering that I use the HOV almost lane daily for the last 15 months, I'll gladly pin it up on the wall. It does state that if reported more than three times "your name and license number will be forwarded to the Washington State Patrol."

We had a ballot measure to allow HOV lane usage to all traffic during off peak daytime hours (10 am - 4 pm IIRC) but amazingly it failed. (FWIW, the already HOV lane is open from 7 pm - 5 am).

Wait...someone got your mailing address?  Or was this through some government body?

[Byteme]

Wait...someone got your mailing address?  Or was this through some government body?

It happens.  I missed the last free exit on a EZ pass only toll road in Austin Tx. a couple of months ago; so I took the next exit.  A month later I got a letter from the toll road authority with an invoice for $1.50.  I sent a check.  I should have made it for $1.60, just to see if they would send a 10 cent refund.   

[GoCougs]

Wait...someone got your mailing address?  Or was this through some government body?

No, it was the state Dept. of Transportation.

[Submariner]

No, it was the state Dept. of Transportation.

Ahh...

Lovely, non the less, when people with so little in there lives feel the need to go after others in a plebeian attempt to mgive them a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

[dsred]

I usually only use the HOV lane for passing left lane campers. However, should I feel a need to perpetually use the lane - late for an appointment or the like - I have no compunction whatsoever in doing so.

My hunch is that "concerned" citizens are jealous that they don't have the guts to do the same. They sit there like chumps behind a left lane camper and get irked that someone just doesn't sit there and take it on the chin.

The HOV lane is to be rejected at its inner core. The added congestion - time lost, fuel wasted, and accidents caused - is an unmitigated and irrefutable disaster. That, and pulling someone over for a non-moving violation in these high traffic areas in very dangerous.

For once I can agree with GoCougs. HOV lanes do not encourage extra carpooling. People that will carpool will do it without HOV lanes. People that won't....won't.

Using the space HOV lanes take up to encourage the flow of ALL traffic would be a far more efficient use of real estate and a far better method of saving fuel.

[Rupert]

Do you have numbers to support that, or are you just pulling it out of yer butt?

[Soup DeVille]

Do you have numbers to support that, or are you just pulling it out of yer butt?

To be fair, there are x number fo people who can carpool due to their particular work/home schedule, and a fair number of people who cannot. HOV lanes do not change that.

[Rupert]

Sure.

So?

[Soup DeVille]

Sure.

So?

So, the idea of an HOV lane has limited potential.

[Rupert]

I got that. It doesn't exactly prove anything, though.

[Soup DeVille]

I got that. It doesn't exactly prove anything, though.

No, but it supports the statement "people who will carpool will do it without HOV lanes, people who won't, won't."

[Rupert]

It supports the second part, not the first.

[dsred]

No, my statement is true. Both parts. Why? Because I said so....