ALT-1 Usefulness of High Occupancy Lanes
I may have a solution to the HOV lane problem. Right now, the HOV lane isn't effective.
Today, as I dutifully sat in traffic in the regular lanes, I got a good look at the cars whizzing by me in the HOV lane and broiled with anger. I estimated that at least 1 out of every 7 cars in the HOV lane had only one person, the driver. I counted 2 marked, and 3 unmarked police cars that passed me, yet for the entire stretch of the highway, not a single car was pulled over. Obviously, enforcement of the HOV lane is not working.
The sense of entitlement that these people have is infuriating. I watched one young male, with no passenger, cruise by me in the HOV lane and then tailgate an ambulance because it wasn't going fast enough for him. In a time when fuel dependency is such a critical issue, we cannot afford to reward people for being jerks. If someone wants to get the perks of the HOV lane, he or she should seek out someone to carpool with and save gas. We need better HOV lane enforcement.
If we cannot put more traffic officers onto the highways, or if the HOV lane violators are evading the traffic officers, we should look into other potential solutions. I propose that we use photo enforcement of the HOV lane. I have seen cameras that are used for catching speeders and drivers who run red lights. I believe this same method could be used to target people in the HOV lane.
Cameras would be set up to get a good view of the driver, passenger, and back seat areas. If it is impractical to take photos of every car passing through the HOV lane, a random sampling will do. With a ratio of 1 HOV lane violator to every 7 legitimate cars, even taking 70 photos a day might capture 10 people driving illegally in the HOV lane. I realize that this will have costs, but the citation revenue should be more than worth it.
I realize that in court it may be difficult to prove absolutely that someone did not have a passenger hidden somewhere in the car. But I suspect the majority of people will pay the violation without contest. And if they do contest the violation, I suspect the hassle will help discourage them from a repeating the same activity.
I am about as anti-surveillance as they get. But I believe so strongly in the need to conserve gasoline, that I support the tactic of using cameras to catch HOV lane violators. If it is too costly and drains too many resources to increase the number and focus of traffic officers searching for HOV violators, then this may be a good alternative. And if increased HOV citations generates enough revenue, hopefully we can put that money into other fuel-saving measures.
