Caltran study out... no more new HOV stickers

Seems the study is limited to the Bay Area where there has been a lot of anecdotal evidence that the streets are clogged with Prius, carpool lane or not. Very prominently featured in a South Park episode too..

Not reason to affect the rest of California. How about hold the current limit, but extend the expiration?

Also, people such as the quoted Shawn Phillips, unless he carpools, mass transits, or drives a low-emissions vehicle, he is not qualified to complain because it would be pot callin' the kettle black.

 

Maybe they should just step up their surveilance of jerks that drive in the lane with 1 occupant and NOT in a stickered hybid?

I drive on a streatch of highway with about 4 miles of "diamond" lane and every morning I can count at least 5 cars driving illegally in that lane.

 

Thats Funny, the reports states that traffic was free flowing in the carpool lane in early 2005, but is stop and go now. What a crock of pooo. I can't tell you how many mid afternoon flights out of San Jose I missed because of the traffic around there. The carpool lane was almost never moving any faster than "regular" traffic lanes. Maybe if they can curtail some of the hundreds of thousands of people illegally coming over the border each year there would not be so many more people on the freeway.

Al...

 

I find it barely credible that an additional 70k cars can POSSIBLY be causing ALL of the congestion ALL of the time on...how many miles of...? HOV lanes.

Step up enforcement. But of course, that increases congestion, because of all the "looky-loos" who slow down to see why someone has been pulled over.

Typical hyped up garbage. Find ONE VISIBLE POSSIBLE reason for a problem, get rid of THAT for maximum exposure, and ignore REALITY.

 

If I were the King of Caltrans, I would change the law.

My new decree:

[trumpets]
A carpool consists of two (or three) LICENSED DRIVERS!!!
[/trumpets]

Sorry, that snot-nosed brat in the booster seat watching cartoons doesn't count. A vehicle WAS NOT taken off the road because the offspring is being chauffeured off to the latest play date. Society isn't helped by little Johnny getting to his destination quicker than people commuting to work. <_<

 

The problem is simple. Our highways suck. In most cases the carpool is not always present. We only started seperating the carpool during intersections recently.

That, and our roads suck as of recently. With all the cars sitting on it all the time... compared to moving at high speeds... they are getting damaged. They are repairing it all way too slow too.

Then again.. figures. it's Calrans...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(altdel @ Sep 8 2006, 05:50 PM) [snapback]316650[/snapback]</div>

I often drive I-80 through Berkeley. The HOV lane there is often as slow as the rest of the freeway. I concur with the theory that there are a lot of bootleggers, and if you got rid of them it would clear a lot of traffic back to where it belongs.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Sep 8 2006, 07:15 PM) [snapback]316763[/snapback]</div>

I remember a woman on a talk radio program a few years ago that wanted her unborn child count. Of course, she would be violating a couple of laws (two people behind the steering wheel at the same time and also two people using the same seatbelt.

This also reminds me of an episode of The Simpsons:

Dr. Nick throws some change to Smithers, and walks inside the
hospital, and finds his way into a boardroom.

Riviera: everybody!
Board: [unenthused] Dr. Nick.
-- At a malpractice board hearing,
"Twenty-Two Short Films About Springfield"

Chairman: Dr. Nick, this malpractice committee has received a few
complaints against you. [reads from clipboard] Of the 160
gravest charges, the most troubling are performing major
operations with a knife and fork from a seafood restaurant.
Riviera: But I cleaned them with my napkin.
Chairman: Misuse of the cadavers.
Riviera: I get here earlier when I drive in the carpool lane.
-- "Twenty-Two Short Films About Springfield"

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alrobot @ Sep 8 2006, 03:21 PM) [snapback]316545[/snapback]</div>

YIKES!!!!!
OUCH!

 

Maybe they should look at traffic in general in the Bay Area. Silicon Valley has just been recovering the from the the dot com bomb and business is picking up. Lots more traffic in all lanes from 2 years ago.

Just another unfounded piece of reporting, instead of finding the real truth.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Sep 8 2006, 09:15 PM) [snapback]316763[/snapback]</div>

As someone that used to drive my kid to day care on my way to work, I'd tell you to bite me. And I think th eidea of requiring a passenger to have driver license is pretty absurd - not to mention next to unenforcable. What about the carpool to school? Mom drives her kid and a couple of neighbor kids to school... that's a carpool!

I have an idea. Let's go back to when all cars had to have two or three occupants to be in the HOV lane. Three Prius owners cozying up in one Prius will take two cars off the road, helping to relieve traffic for society.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Sep 8 2006, 07:15 PM) [snapback]316763[/snapback]</div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Curtis SAC @ Sep 8 2006, 10:32 PM) [snapback]316848[/snapback]</div>

My mother is 71. She has NEVER had a license. You gonna ask HER for her id? While we are on the road to get her to and from her cancer treatements? Oh, no, wait. She used to smoke. So it's all her fault. To hell with her, huh? Or would you like to rephrase that to read "two (or three) APPARENTLY OLD ENOUGH TO BE LICENSED people?" What about my kid who is provisionally licensed? But I have another teen in the car so my kid can't drive? Yeah, and what ABOUT school carpools? We live just inside the limit for the school bus. A parent with 3 kids doesn't count? Oh, no, of course not. It's only people on their way to work. Never mind about getting the kids educated to work later. Or getting their parents to drop off the kids before THEY have to get to work. I am NOT talking "in utero" here...just common sense. Like...my mother has never felt comfortable driving a car. Given that, I am MUCH happier having her be a passenger (preferably not in MY car, but that's beside the point).

 

The article is focused on problem being in the Bay area, it stinks that it might affect us in SoCal where it is not so bad. We were in the bay area last week and I must have seen 10 cars in the carpool lane with only one person-non hybrid cars. It seems like so many cheat the carpool lane. I don't see that as much in SoCal.

 

One significant difference between the Northern and Southern California lanes is that the most heavily travelled Southern California lanes are physically separated from the rest of the freeway (sometimes with their own ramps). Opportunities to enter and leave the lanes are limited, which, I think, discourages non-authorized vehicles from jumping in and also allows drivers using the lanes to relax a bit.

One problem with the Northern California lanes is that when they are flowing freely with the rest of the freeway in stop-start mode, vehicles can enter and exit the lane at random points, leading to the necessity to leave very long gaps between vehicles using the lane. This also tempts unauthorized vehicles to jump into the lane with the drivers thinking they can get out before being caught.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rufaro @ Sep 9 2006, 01:08 AM) [snapback]316863[/snapback]</div>

My wife's grandmother is 95 and gave up driving several years ago. She still travels by car, by apparently doesn't benefit society as much as solo Prius driver in the fast lane. My grandmother just gave up her car at 89.

I don't care if they are breastfeeding infants. As far as I am concerned, they count. As soon as we start trying to determine if the butts in the seats of a "carpool" are worthy enough to have HOV lane access, then the first butts to be kicked back into the slow lanes should be the single occupant hybrids.

 

San Jose Mercury Update (read CORRECTION) to this story:

A front-page article Friday about hybrid vehicles in carpool lanes misstated some of the results of a study of congestion in the lanes. The Caltrans study showed carpool-lane congestion grew over the past year on each Bay Area highway studied. Elsewhere in the state, the results were mixed, with congestion growing on some routes but not on others. Also, a small headline on the front page misstated the conclusion of the study; it did not say conclusively that increased use of hybrids is clogging carpool lanes.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...al/15478971.htm

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Sep 8 2006, 09:15 PM) [snapback]316763[/snapback]</div>

Now I must say, the above is one of the smartest quotes I have ever read !!! BRAVO

 

I had my application returned cause of no registration or license plate. It came yesterday 9/8. I called DMV to see if it was to late to get the HOV sticker and she said "they still got them".

Also, at the rate the government moves, it would probably take 6 months to put an end to it.