Highway Robbery

Oh boy, look what Las Vegas has to brag about.


We have ourselves HOV lanes.

Also known as carpool lanes, commuter lanes, diamond lanes, and transit lanes.

We spend millions of our tax dollars on the widening of our freeway only to lose one lane as an HOV lane for cars with two or more people in them, unless you are on a motorcycle then you are exempt.

Neither of those criterion makes any sense.

First, this lane will not encourage carpooling.

It will in fact only be used by those who already have two people in the car which in turn means you have one lane underutilized to actually move traffic.

In the great wisdom here in Nevada, that lane is an HOV lane 24 hours a day rather than just during rush hour.

The original purpose of a carpool (HOV) lane was to lighten traffic and reward people that ride share to and from work, not 24 hours a day.

With the 24 hour regulation as the lane is now, the soccer mom and her kid will be the ones using it as well as Mom and Pop on the way to the mall.

How does that encourage carpooling?

That lane should at the very least be usable by other vehicles outside of peak hours.

The other problem that will happen real soon at least here in Las Vegas is the HOV lane will cause more traffic accidents.

If you are in the HOV lane during rush hour and you are going to exit you must transition across all lanes of traffic in a short distance to exit.

Good luck!!!

Next problem is the HOV lane does not have a wall between it and the other lanes thus the traffic speed differential between HOV and general purpose lanes creates a potentially dangerous situation if the HOV lanes are not separated by a barrier.

The Texas Transportation Institute found that HOV lanes lacking barrier separations caused a 50% increase in injury crashes.

Think about this, with the HOV lane and the amount of cars that will legally be using the HOV lane, it will significantly increase demand on the other lanes causing a net increase in overall congestion delay.

Bang for the buck tells anyone with common sense we should not have an HOV lane that costs a lot of tax dollars and does not help traffic flow.

It's an oxymoron or like mixing apples and oranges.

Freeways are built to move traffic. When traffic becomes stop-and-go, you expand the freeway to move traffic. Right?

HOV lanes are for the most part lightly traveled thus wasting a lane that could be used to actually move traffic.

The relative rarity of high-occupancy vehicles compared to single occupancy vehicles is estimated at 7% of the traffic in the United States.

If you build a freeway to carpool then three of the four lanes should be HOV lanes and one lane for all others.

I have some other issues with the HOV lane as I use that road everyday but am unable to carpool.

I'm not alone. 93% of other drivers can't use it either.

However, my tax dollars paid for that lane and that should entitle me to full use of that part of the highway.

I am considering hiring an attorney to sue for my rights to use that lane without a second person in the car.

Beware my friends when this HOV lane here in Las Vegas flops, they will be converting under-utilized HOV lanes to high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes. This would permit single-occupant vehicles to buy the right to use the HOV lanes for a toll.

If the geniuses want to do something effective they should designate the far right hand lane as a TRK lane and make it illegal for a truck to travel in any other lane.

How about a DWO lane? You know "Driving While Old" lane for all the people that drive 45 on the freeway.

Or a "STPD lane" for all the stupid people that drive slow in the left lane.

Something to consider as you drive along side the empty HOV lane.