Contact your VA delegate & senator

NoSUV - Were you bored or did it really take you 6 days to postulate your questions? I'm not Jody, but I'm going to take a stab at your questions.

You ask:

If you add 300,000 people to a region without any transportation improvements do you:

a. Expect all traffic to move as smoothly as before.

No, no one is that naive. (my faith in humanity, though constantly tested, is optimistic that this answer is shared by the majority)

b. Expect traffic in Express Lanes to move as smoothly as before with additional commuters all traveling in the Regular Lanes

No, I (like any rational person) would expect additional delays due to people availing themselves of alternatives (hybrids or other special exemptions made possible by the State of Virginia).

c. Blame slowdowns in the Express Lanes not on more commuters but on the initiative to encourage consumers to slow the rate of Global Warming and reduce fuel consumption.

No, slowdowns are due to the increased number of vehicles in the HOV lanes. Comprende? Vehicles. (and what initiative are you talking about? While noble perhaps, Virginia isn't into green ideologies - it accepts out of state waste for crying out loud)

An increase of 300,000 people could mean an increase of 300,000 VEHICLES (the deity of your choosing forbid). Virginia has obviously opted to succumb to those who won't try the bus, carpools, and yes, slugging (that system of casual carpooling to which you're obviously so averse). The state is interested in moving people from point A to B and in reducing congestion. The problem is, they're punishing those who have joined carpools, rode buses and vanpools, picked up or rode with complete strangers - all in the interest of keeping vehicles off the road (albeit with time/cost savings) - by adding VEHICLES to the HOV lanes.

Try reading Dick Boyd's posts (ok, granted, a laborious chore at times). His point is to fill the number of empty seats (on buses, in cars, etc...) on our roads. THAT is the key. How does an SOV hybrid help? It doesn't.

What's ultimately going to happen is that both sets of lanes will be equally congested. And while you avail yourself of a choice made possible by the State of Virginia (and hide behind the notion of being green) you're not doing anyone any good but yourself.

Care to list your credentials as an expert on climate change, NoSUV?

I think you must be made of copper, because I've never seen anything turn green so fast.

In terms of climate change, I once was involved in that field, and if memory serves, the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions were: industry, power generation, deforestation, the transportation industry, agriculture, and private households, to include private autos.

Transportation as a whole contributes only 14%-15% of the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. Your pathetic hype-bred is a feel-good, self-congratulatory, smug little attempt to claim the higher moral ground, a stance propped up by the ADVERTISING you've swallowed.

If everyone in the U.S. had a hybrid today, immediately, it would make nary a dent in the continued increase of CO2 in the atmosphere. Hardly enough impact to measure.

Want to do something really useful? Here are some Sponge-worthy ideas:

Vote President Cheney and his puppet George out of office.
Reduce your electricity consumption at home.
Write a letter protesting the relaxation of the Clean Air Act standards with regard to the coal power industry.
Contribute cash to a qualified environmental group fighting deforestation.
Move to China and protest their energy policies.
Stop emitting hot air out of your mouth.

Since NoSUV doesn't drive on I-95, and doesn't contribute to slugging, why doesn't he find a message board on the greenpeace website, or, as stated in Happy Gilmore, "have a nice warm glass of shut the h*ll up" :)

Hooch

Sorry SUV, didn't see your answer, still don't. Did however notice that you claim average speed on 395 to be at or above posted speed limit. Funny, every single day this week HOV has gone from 60mph on 95 to 25-30 mph around LRT (isn't that where you get on?? ) all the way to the Pentagon. We sit in stop and go the rest of the way, surrounded by SOV's in HOV's, and they're not violators.

Hooch

KnowSyouV - wasn't referring to violators or cheaters, I see very few of those without CF/CX tags, and it's usually around the cutoff time somewhere along my 20+ mile slug ride. I was referring to the SOV greenpeace squad cars.

And for the record, the vast majority of the posters here (myself included) don't hate/bash hybrids. They are better for the environment no doubt. But, to own one and drive alone preaching that you're saving the planet because you care is a bit hypocritical don't you think? My neighbor owns two, alternates driving them from Rt 234 to D.C. every day, and picks up riders. She also recycles and has an electric lawn mower. I'd say she's one hybrid owner that cares, and that I don't see as a hypocrite.

Hooch