Sluggers buy a clue

I remember when I was a kid, the parents in the neighborhood used to team up to take turns driving to things that several kids would be attending. That certainly helps take cars off the road, if the alternative is for each parent to drive separately.

The HOV law does not say "3 persons commuting." It's 3 people, period. Perfectly legal for tourists to use the HOV, for example, or people going to Reagan Airport (that's helped me a few times when I call car service when we're leaving on vacation). For that matter, it's perfectly OK for a long-distance traveller--say, the day before Thanksgiving--to hop in the HOV if he's got the three people. It becomes unworkable otherwise. Where do you draw the line? If you say cars with "non-driver" passengers are ineligible, then do you stop the car and ask to see the teenage kids' driver's licenses to confirm their age? What about the little old lady who never got a driver's license and is a passenger with a family member? She's a nondriver. Does that mean that all cars carrying old people must be pulled over to check? Sooner or later all this pulling people over, with the attendant inevitable rubbernecking, would slow EVERYONE down.

Ultimately, what it boils down to is that nobody ever said that the HOV was to be the private preserve of people commuting to the Pentagon or to downtown DC.

Qorc isn't about using brains. This is what Qorc is depending on to keep "hybrids" on HOV.

Here's a quote from the Los Angeles Metro site regarding motorcycles on HOV. They say it's federal law.

Motorcycles are permitted by federal law to use HOV lanes, even though they typically carry only one passenger. The explanation for the federal law is that allowing motorcycles to use HOV lanes keeps them moving, and it is considered safer to keep two-wheel vehicles moving than it is to have them traveling in start-and-stop traffic conditions. The individual states can choose to override this provision of federal law, if they determine that there is an inherent safety risk by allowing motorcycles to use HOV lanes. In the State of California, motorcycles are permitted to use HOV facilities unless a traffic control device specifically prohibits them.

quote:

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Originally posted by qorc
[br]No, I don't think the intent was to provide a safer biking environment for the bikers. I think it had more to do with fuel efficiency. I am certainly not as knowledgeable as others on here, but I think that the original intent of the HOV lanes was more geared towards cleaner air
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Precisely. I get 51 mpg on my run to work and back in my hybrid - high fuel efficiency.

Thank you for making my point.

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You are very welcome. [8D]

Note that my post said that this was the ORIGINAL intent. I am guessing that now the the area is getting more heavily populated and more cars are on the road, I am guessing that the focus now is shifting to getting more cars off the road as well. This is probably why your hybrid exemption will be expiring shortly.

No, I don't think the intent was to provide a safer biking environment for the bikers. I think it had more to do with fuel efficiency. I am certainly not as knowledgeable as others on here, but I think that the original intent of the HOV lanes was more geared towards cleaner air
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Precisely. I get 51 mpg on my run to work and back in my hybrid - high fuel efficiency.

Thank you for making my point.

Warning, KC: you are about to enter the Twit-light Zone (yes, Twit-light,) where qorc lives. He likes saying silly things, we think because it amuses him to watch grown-ups get angry.

If you simply make allowances for his inability to count past #1 or see beyond the end of his nose, he becomes, in an odd way, faintly amusing.

Still, he can get tiresome, too. Then he's best ignored.

(Lord, I don't know what I'd do without him. I love the guy! [:D][:D][:D])