HOV Lanes

Last week, I traveled to Irvine California for a job interview. During my trip, I was extremely upset about the HOV lanes.... they were empty. I was upset for two reasons. One, there were very very few cars using the HOV lanes and second, the remaining 4 to 5 lanes were traveling at a snails pace. Traffic was bumper to bumper and would have moved must faster if the HOV lanes were being used by more cars.

While I'd love to see people traveling 2-3 in each vehicle... or even more. It wasn't happening that day. I asked a friend about this and he said its always like that. UGH. Very upsetting and frustrating.

We need more people using the HOV lanes. I 100% agree with that. However, if people are not using them... we need to use them for everyone else.... since they are using much more fuel just sitting there in traffic while the HOV lanes are empty. Opening up the HOV lanes to others, when not being used by HOV commuters, would save a significant amount of energy.

The State of California has given a small number of hybrid cars and trucks the ability to use the HOV lanes, they need to expand that and allow all hybrids and electric cars to use it. In addition, it would be great if they also allowed other energy efficient vehicles access. They could even charge for its use and then use that money to expand access to energy efficient cars and trucks.

While this was California, I'm confident that this situation is happening across American, where HOV lanes exist. I applaud the concept, however, if its not working as intended, it needs to change. The objective is laudable, the program just needs to be modified to better promote energy conservation and reduced our reliance on fossil fuels.