Hybrids - a threat to car-pooling?

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Originally posted by Trotski99
[br]Having two HOV lanes sit virtually empty while three "regular" lanes are totally jammed is not a solution to our region's traffic problems. I think the focus should be on improving congestion for ALL commuters rather than just for the environmentally "elite".

It seems to me that if the problem is "congestion" then we should build more roads.

The problem now is that not enough drivers are interested in sharing their vehicles with strangers and there aren't enough strangers willing to spend their mornings hitchhiking to work. Making the restrictions even more severe would only exacerbate the problem.

HOV has cost the public billions of dollars and the congestion for the average commuter is worse now than before.

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If there were two lanes that were virtually empty there wouldn't be so many complaints about hybrids. The fact is that the two HOV lanes move more people than three regular lanes during peak congestion. Maybe you should research the situation more before spouting off uninformed opinions. The HOV lanes are at capacity(which doesn't mean bumper to bumper) which tends to discount your thought of "not enough drivers are interested in sharing their vehicles with strangers and there aren't enough strangers willing to spend their mornings hitchhiking to work". If the HOVs were no longer HOV you would have enough cars to jam up 6 lanes of traffic to the level that the current regular lanes are congested, but you would only have 5 lanes so congestion would be worse than it currently is on the regular lanes.
You can't blame HOVs for traffic getting worse, they work. When the HOVs and the regular lanes are at capacity the only people you can blame are the politcians(and the people that elect them) for not setting the right priorities and providing ways to move more people. Guess what, HOT isn't going to move more people. It will add one lane but push more people out of HOV resulting in more than enough cars to fill that extra lane. But now you will have to be one of the "elite" in order to buy one of those spots. It will also prevent any real solutions for the regular lanes since I'm sure there will be a no-compete clause in the contract making any improvements to the regular lanes impossible till the lease is up in 40 years.
HOT will maximize revenue, not maximize moving people.

From the presentations at Monday's Town Hall - their current projection for HOT on 95/395 was $.20 per mile (if you commute from Dumfries that works out to around $3000/yr with daily use) slightly more expensive than $2 "to be able to get to work in a hurry if pressed for time." They continued to say that they would increase the price to a point to discourage use to the point of congestion. What would that price look like $2 or $3 per mile?

I think HOV as a social experiment has been a huge waste of taxpayer money. For all the extra money spent on all the overpasses, on-and-off-ramps, signs, enforcement, etc. it would have been much better to have just added two more lanes in each direction. Ironically, these HOV lanes have added more to congestion because "normal" traffic has not been expanded as much because taxpayer dollars have been spent on HOV.

Thank god they've started letting the hybrid vehicles in the HOV lanes because at least now they're not totally empty while the "normal" lanes are jam-packed. HOV lanes were a high-minded attempt at moulding public behavior to accomplish a vague goal of reducing congestion. It has failed miserably because people don't want to have to share their cars with complete strangers every morning just to get to work in less than 2 hours.

Conversely, I think the idea of "HOT" lanes is a much more realistic (and more market-driven) idea that will be resoundingly successful if implemented. I would gladly pay an extra 25, 50 cents or even a dollar (or perhaps even 2 dollars?) to be able to get to work in a hurry if pressed for time.

The idea of transportation infrastructure is to get people to where they want to go, not to force them into deviant behavior: picking up hitchhikers (the desired effect) or breaking the law (for those who drive alone in the lanes). Simply opening these lanes to all traffic would be the biggest boost to the economy because the slightly reduced congestion.

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Originally posted by NoSUV
[br]The problem remains NOT with the hybrids but with the overall congestion. Regular lanes are already full and adding cars (hybrids) to them only makes them worse. Each of the drivers in the regular lanes has a reason for not carpooling - a portion of the hybrid drivers will have a similar reason. If SOV hybrids in HOV lanes isn't the answer, then toll becomes the next best alternative to the regular lane mess.

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[:0]Wait a minute. Where did these hybrid drivers come from? My guess is that a high proportion of them are people who have been riding in the GP lanes and have made the switch due to the exemption. Most of the people I know who are driving the hybrids were not sluggers they either wanted out of the GP or were bus riders. The idea should be to reduce congestion, single rider cars do not do that. Letting them into the HOV lanes just spreads it out. What needs to be done is come up with ways to make carpooling more of an option such as adding more exits from the HOV to places other than DC & Pgon.

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Originally posted by the truth

Oh putting the hybrids back on regular 95 lanes will really help the air quality and congestion... How about no slug lane 12 mpg vehicles on hov? NO SUV's on HOV!

OH YEA....

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Virginia currently has HOT lanes the cost of admission is purchasing a hybrid. The purpose of the HOV is to move people and according to the Post they are doing that quite well. Single rider vehicles only move one person so removing the exemption should encourage the people with the hybrids to pick up slugs (they have become acustomed to using the HOV and may not want to go back). Also, I would not object to HOV-4 and an extra 1/2 hour in the evening.