The Car Pool lane is FAIL

The California handbook has a very small section on the carpool lanes, here is the link:

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/hdbk/traffic_lanes.htm#carpool

Car Pooling was originally introduced as a way to encourage ride sharing to both lower emissions and traffic on the highways by rewarding those who did so with a special lane on the freeway. I don' think this has actually ever worked as intended and needs to be done away with. The rules of carpooling says 2 or more persons, and since a child is by law a person a single adult with children in the car are allowed access to the Car Pool lane. This is not stopping congestion or emissions, since children do not have driver's licenses or cars. Sometimes I would like to install a baby car seat in the back of my car and keep a fake baby in it cause essentially there is no difference in emissions or traffic.

So many of SoCal's car pool lanes are useless anyway even if you do have a full car of fellow commuters. Lets start with the one I drive next to most of the week, the 5 North and South between the 805 merge and Cardiff. It is a express lane style Car Pool lane in that there are no entrances or exits for 8 miles of freeway, except for the northbound lanes which have one exit just before the lane ends. Here is the Problem, in the afternoons heading north the freeway backs up a few miles after the lane starts, and the reason the traffic backs up is not because of a large number of cars, it is because the freeway loses a lane at Manchester drive, right where the Car Pool lane ends. Any time a freeway loses a lane I feel the need to hunt down the designer and slap them silly. I would really like to meet one road designer and have them explain to me why they would ever take a busy Freeway from 5 to 4 lanes in the middle of a metropolitan area. I understand if the freeway has left the city and is heading into the mountains where the number of cars using it will be less, but that is not the Case in the middle of San Diego County. It is apparent to me that just about all road designers have never driven a car or commuted a day in their life. I would imagine Jeremy Clarkson would say they probably have beards and ride the metro.

Lets look at another example of where a Car Pool lane is broken, the 5 South in Orange County where the 57 south merges into it. The 57 also has a Car Pool lane, and thus the 2 Car Pool lanes merge at the same time as the freeway, in fact they merge in about 150 feet of road which causes a backup several miles long during rush hour, causing many to illegally jump out of the lane into regular traffic lanes. Essentially if you are in the car pool you are moving slower then the main freeway, and if you jump out of it you are making the regular lanes have to slow down to let you over impeding traffic even more then it has to be. This does not have to be this way, in fact further down this same freeway there is another merge with the 405 which also has a Car Pool lane. The person who designed this merge obviously is the one person who designs road who did not take the short bus to school. The 2 lanes come together to form a 2 lane Car Pool lane for about 3 miles before they finally merge together. Besides this rare case of good design, Road Designers, you fail, emissions are not lower and traffic is not better.

The only time traffic has been reduced was 2 years ago when gas shot up to $4 per gallon and people stopped driving around if they did not have a good reason to do so. I am not saying increase gas prices to reduce traffic and emissions, but so far that has been the only solution I have seen to do this.

Hybrids, Specifically the Prius and the Honda Civic Hybrid of a few years were given a special sticker that allows them to travel the Car Pool lane with only a driver and no passengers. At the time the reason behind doing this was to encourage people to waste thousands of dollars on brand new un-proven technology by giving them a perk. Who was the moron that came up with this idea? At 65+ miles per hour a hybrid is really no different then any other 4 cylinder vehicle on the road, if you do not know this or understand why this is so, time to do some research on how Hybrids work. If the idea of a Car Pool lane is to both reduce emissions and traffic, putting a Hybrid in them violates both of these principles as the mileage is not better and you are encouraging people to drive alone. If the lawmakers want to use Hybrid technology the law should stat Hybrids are restricted to roads where the speed limit is 40mph or less so they can stay in electric mode as long as possible. That is the only time a Hybrid is being "green". The fact of the matter is in SoCal the average speed for many is 75-85 on a regular basis, at that speed the underpowered Prius motor is actually getting less MPG then many lighter 4 cylinder cars. Oh Sure, YOU would never speed in your Hybrid. Don't bother trying to lie to yourself, I see it all the time. In fact just last week I was cruising above the speed limit when a new Honda insight blew by me. i decided to catch up and clock him to see just how fast he was going, 84. Give me your keys, you fail. Top Gear did an interesting piece on this a few years ago, if you have not seen it I suggest you go to finalgear.com and download all the TOP GEAR episodes and watch them until you do see it. So, Hybrids in the Car Pool lane, FAIL.

Weekends in the Car Pool lane can be horrendous, this past weekend we drove 150 miles up through LA to visit some family. On the way home Sunday mid-day the traffic was moving faster in the main freeway lanes then the Car Pool lane in many parts of LA because of one person out for a Sunday drive not caring that the rest of the world had somewhere to be. Car Pool does not mean get in and drive what ever speed you want, see the "fast lane" post from last week, all of that applies to you drivers, GET OUT and drive in the middle or right hand lane if you want to go slow.

Why Bus's are allowed in the Car Pool or "fast lanes" is beyond me. If Tractor Trailers are not allowed to travel above 55 and thus must remain in the right 2 lanes for safety reasons why would a giant bus or motor home be allowed to? I understand people like to think those who are riding the bus are "being green" by not driving their own car. In reality they are just "being cheap" cause they cannot afford their own car, every single face looking out at you as you drive by are jealous. A large Bus cannot stop as fast as a car, yet I see them regularly driving 70+, and half the bus's in Southern California are not Grey Hounds. Most of them are Intercalifornia's Bus's bringing people to and from Mexico, and thus have Mexican Plates. Last time I checked Mexico basically has ZERO rules about emissions and safety equipment. Essentially there are huge death machines polluting like mad in our "green" state and endangering the lives of everyone around them with high speed and who knows when the last time the brakes were checked. Plus, you cannot see around a huge bus which is a major danger in itself. In Drivers Ed I remember being taught to keep your eyes scanning the road a number of cars ahead of you in case you need to react to something you are coming upon, even looking though the windows of the vehicle in front of you. Unless you are driving another bus or motor home you cannot see anything but the black cloud coming from the back of a bus. Bus's in the Car Pool lane is FAIL. Big time FAIL.

So, what to do with the this vile thing known as a Car Pool lane? Change em, Change em to Express Lanes. There are 2 very good express lanes in Southern California, the better of the two being the 15 freeway Express lane that runs from San Diego to Escondido on one of the busiest Southern California freeways. To use the Express Lane one must either be traveling with 2 or more persons OR pay to use the express lane in the same way one pays for many of the toll roads, Fast Trak responders. I do this and on a Thursday or Friday afternoon it is pure joy to be traveling on the 2 lane Express lane while all the cheapo's sit in bumper to bumper traffic. Of course there is a slight flaw in that the Express Lane ends before the traffic does and thus I get to sit in it for about 3 miles before I connect to another freeway. I say remove the Car Pool portion all together and force all Express Lanes to be pay to use. I am not the richest person on the road, but I would fully support a pay to use system on every freeway I travel, and all the cheap people in the world can enjoy the traffic. I would even like to take this to another level, before you can qualify to use the "Express" lane you have to pass a high speed drivers course, and take a special class to get a high speed Drivers License. The Express lane should have a minimum speed of 75 and be highly enforced to make sure people get where they want to be on time. Modern technology has proven that cars can be safe at high rates of speed, but that is a topic for another time. Currently Car Pool lanes generate ZERO revenue for this state which as many know has been sliding down a huge slope of debt for the last 10 years even though the taxes are higher then any other state, the average income is way up there, and the general cost of living is higher then most places in the nation. I am not saying my plan would balance the budget, but it would create revenue. Currently the DMV is closed on Friday's to help the state save money, open it up on Fridays for Express lane tests and classes. I know I would be willing to pay a premium to get a high speed DL and the right to pay to drive faster then the traffic around me. And I can bet there are thousands like me who would do the same, in SoCal that number could possibly be in the millions. I have yet to meet someone who would not pay for such a privilege. I would be more then willing to brave the overall disgusting experience of waiting in line at the DMV to get this privilege. Dear California, Listen to my idea, I will even come up to Sacramento on my own dime to show you how to implement this. The end result would accomplish more then the goals of the failing Car Pool lane, those who want to drive faster and have the privilege to do so can pay for it if they are good enough to pass the high speed driving course and test, and all those who enjoy traveling at a slower pace will get their wish, and as the number of users of the express lanes grow the lanes can be widened until the non-express lane is just one lane on the highway, the off ramp.