Get ready for an opinionated rant.
I ride a motorcycle a lot. It is how I get to and from work almost always. One reason I do this is that I can use the carpool lane here in AZ. It is a “perk” for motorcycle riders. I think that it is a fair perk as well since there is very limited ability to ride with more than 1 person, and the fact that not having to sit in the summer heat is a big thing as well. I wear a leather jacket, pants, helmet, and gloves even in the summer, and so sitting is a very uncomfortable option (and possibly dangerous health wise).
I love the carpool lane when I drive when I can. When my family is together it makes a lot of sense.
I also think that carpool lanes are a great thing to help promote carpooling. If we can get more people to carpool, then that puts less cars on the road. That means there is less wear and tear on the road. That also means there is less pollution. That is always a good thing. I think that all cities that have freeways should have carpool lanes if they have any kind of congestion issues on the roads.
Carpool lanes are not passing lanes either. Stop doing this. These people typically aren’t paying as close attention to vehicles in the carpool lane as they try to zip around the “slow” car that they want to get around. And sometimes that “passing” turns into them just continuing in the carpool lane.
Who wouldn’t want there to be carpool lanes? I know that there are places where it doesn’t make sense because of space, and that is a valid reason, but I have heard some people complain that it eliminates a lane that more people could use, and it adds to congestion. I get that but disagree with the sentiment. The lane is there to serve the people that are carpooling. It is all about changing that mindset to try and carpool. People just need to be willing to do it. I don’t carpool to work because I don’t have others in my area where I live to carpool with.
Now for the rant to start. I am writing this because I am getting really sick of a few things regarding the carpool lane and how it is handled here in the Maricopa County:
- People are alone in their car: I can say that every time I am on the road, I would say that at least 85% of the cars only have 1 person in the car. There are a couple reasons for this, but the first one is that there are people that think the rule doesn’t apply to them. I can’t stand these people. By adding these people to that lane the lane slows down. I typically have to sit in the carpool lane every day at least once or twice due to the sheer number of cars in the lane, and most of them are single person cars.
- People with a baby or child in the car: It is called a carpool lane. That implies that the people in the car would otherwise each be in their own car if they were not in the car together. This is one of the problems with the way the law is written. It just says 2 or more persons in the car. So, these people aren’t breaking the law, but they are breaking the intention of the law. I think the law could be rewritten to still allow children to count, but maybe you need more than 1 child. Then you are possibly carpooling since that second child isn’t being driven by someone else as well. I can honestly say I don’t think I have ever used the carpool lane when I have only 1 child in the car with me.
- Hybrid/Electric Vehicles: This is my big beef as well. The law in AZ is that if you have a Hybrid or EV then you can use the carpool lane. The main reason for this was to promote the purchasing of hybrid/electric vehicles. What a great idea… Well, we are many years since this law was written and now there are a lot more of these vehicles on the road. We need to change this law. The single driver in an EV doesn’t need to be in the carpool lane anymore. They can sit with everyone else. In fact, those cars are the ones that should be sitting in traffic since they create less pollutants as they sit. So having those cars in the non-carpool lanes is better for the environment. It shouldn’t be an incentive to buy these cars anymore. People are doing it of their own accord, and soon there won’t be an option anyways. So, unless the law gets changed there really won’t be a carpool lane anymore.
I think that is it. There are certainly other things out there while driving that bug me. This felt good to write so I will most likely write about those too sometime.
What do you think? I think this is something worth talking about. Am I crazy for thinking like this? Should my #2 and #3 not be issues and we just keep it all as it is? Let me know.