HOV Rules

If I get on HOV at the Pentagon at 3:20pm and drive to Lake Ridge, do I have to exit the HOV lanes when it hits 3:30pm?

You don't have to but unless you don't want a ticket it's a good idea.

According to VDOT if you don't get off by 3:30 i.e. youre still in between, lets say Springfield and Lorton you can and will be ticketed. I used to think that as long as you were past the last posible exit until Horner Road you were safe, not so any more. If you are caught in the HOV lanes anytime after the 3:30 deadline you are fair game for the police.

A long-time driver explained it to us new slugs this way:
Virginia laws allow drivers with fewer occupants than the HOV requirement to use the HOV lanes (either HOV-3 or HOV-2) except when the HOV restriction hours are in effect. If we are using the HOV lanes in violation of the law when the restrictions go into effect, law enforcement views it as P2 planning on our part and will give us a ticket to commemorate our inability to plan our trips to be off the HOV lanes when the restrictions go into effect to allow bonafide HOV-compliant vehicles. Best thing for us drivers to do when we have fewer occupants than HOV requires is to plan our trips to be off the HOV lanes prior to the HOV restricted hours. Otherwise, we risk a ticket. If cutting it close, we can avoid a ticket completely by just picking up slugs. [:)]

Maybe this isn't the correct forum but I have a question. Is there a web site or a phone number I can access to complain about the lack of policing(spell?) of the HOV in the morning. I see the police all the time in the afternoon but never in the morning and it's absolute gridlock at 6:10 AM. Just to be legal and knowing people need rides, I will pick up as early as 5:30 AM. I get frustrated by all the singles clogging up the lanes and am willing to do what needs to be done to voice my dissatisfaction with the morning patrol. That sign that say's violaters will be ticketed at 6:00 Am just isn't true.