California lawmakers want to impose shame on HOV lane violators; sounds like field day for pranksters
So you see someone driving solo in the carpool lane who's not allowed (certain hybrids with stickers and low-emission vehicles like the Honda Civic GX are okay). Not only is the offending driver cheating, but the jerk is probably disrupting traffic in multiple lanes and causing panic among other motorists. If pending legislation in California passes, you can do more than simply curse at the sleazebag within the confines of your vehicle. The bill would create a hotline for motorists to report solo drivers. The registered owner of the vehicle won't get a ticket but will receive a warning letter.
Seattle already has a similar policy, and officials say less than seven percent of the complaints involve repeat offenders. Carpool cheating in Washington is less than five percent while the national average runs between 10 and 15 percent.
In the San Francisco area, more than 20,000 drivers were slapped with the $330-plus carpool lane violation in 2006.
The obvious problem with such a program involves driver distraction while writing down the offender's license plate number. I usually have a small tape recorder in my vehicle to log any thoughts for new projects or remember the name of a new song I hear on the radio. So now I may have another chore for the recorder. The story didn't say anything about problems with false or prank calls to the hotline. I just wonder if some fraternity initiation someday wouldn't involve calling in every plate of the entire football team or all the professors in the business department.
[Source: Gary Richards/Media News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1985 Gripen 1:36PM (3/22/2007)
So now we're advocating creating a police state where people are encouraged to report on their neighbor? Sounds very Gestapo to me.
Another problem with this (and why I believe I've NEVER seen anyone pulled-over out of the carpool lane here in SoCal) is that sometimes you'll see some guy driving solo. Then, as he goes by you see he's got a baby in a car seat in the back seat. So TECHNICALLY he's got 2 people in the vehicle. I don't know if they need to change the signs to specify that both people have to be licensed drivers...
Why don't we just end all this and eliminate the carpool lane altogether to help reduce congestion for all, not just a select few? Very few people in the carpool lane consciously made plans with another driver to take a car off the road. Most people found themselves in the car with their spouse or someone they were going to drive with anyway.
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Chet 1:14PM (3/23/2007)
Carpool lanes work.
They could work better if the law were changed to "two licensed drivers, or three people" -- I'd give the benefit of the doubt to mom with two kids, as she could be ferrying a neighbor's kid as well as her own, but the mom-and-baby carpoolers are violating the spirit of the system.
As for snitching on violators... slippery slope here, but we're already sliding down it in California, with the 1-800-EXHAUST program for reporting visibly-polluting vehicles.
But it's a good idea, if only because it gives the honest drivers an outlet for their rage when they see some jackass cheating. It's not really about catching anyone, it's about reducing road rage. People get REALLY wound up about carpool cheaters.
I'll take a little cell-phone distraction over boiling rage behind the wheel any day.
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MikeW 5:10PM (3/23/2007)
HOV lanes are ridiculous.
http://www.motorists.com/issues/emissions/nma_hov_position.html
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