Every night on my way home from work, traffic is at a near stand-still due to congested roads. Okay, whatever, traffic happens all the time, why complain? Because every night, I see the lane to the far left wide open and completely free of cars. Each time I see it, my stomach churns because there is no real reason why it should be closed to single passenger vehicles except stupidity. Studies show that even though many times carpool lanes go unused, they still help to alleviate congestion in heavy traffic areas by creating a sort of buffer zone that allows people to move in and out of bottlenecks with relative ease. If you could imagine what three lanes backed up would look like in four lanes, that's exactly the picture we would get if the carpool lanes were discontinued completely. In my opinion, carpool lanes should not be restricted to people with HOV's or hybrids because there simply aren't enough of them to justify its use. If someone wants to use the carpool lane, they should be able to pay a yearly fee to DMV for their own sticker on a license plate that grants them use of the lane. I think that would increase the effectiveness of the roads and raise income for the state. Then the carpool lane would make more sense to way more people, making it seem less like an irritant, and more like a relief. What do you guys think? Should the carpool lane stay or go?
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