Ah, the HOV Lane! The one respite from the drudgery of driving in Los Angeles is when I am allowed to use these lanes. My HOV lane travel typically happens when I’m with my wife and it is usually quite a better lane for travel then, well, any other lane, generally. However there are moments when the HOV lane can be maddening and so I offer the question, what does the HOV lane mean to you? HOV lane definition is very important if we’re going to have an organized society; without rules, we are savages.
To start, let’s find out exactly what HOV lane means. Back east on my old highways growing up, we didn’t have defined HOV lanes as we do all around the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles. Interstate 84, I-95, Saw Mill River Parkway, I-80, Garden State Parkway, New York State Thruway, Mass Pike, and the like; none of these have defined HOV lanes so far as I can remember, in the areas I used to drive them. HOV stands for “High Occupancy Vehicle” – in California (where I live anyway) “high occupancy” means 2. Also colloquially known as “the carpool lane,” the fact that the CA DMV has to dumb this down to a minimum of 2 is really indicative of just how many people drive their own cars here.
According to the CA DMV website, the definition is even a little broader than that. California allows certain types of Hybrid, electric, and other “Clean Air Certified” vehicles access to the usually vacant HOV lane. From the CA DMV website:
“A carpool lane is a special freeway lane only for motorcycles, buses, and/or carpools. You may use a carpool lane or onramp if your vehicle carries the minimum number of people required for the carpool lane or you drive a low-emission vehicle displaying a special DMV issued decal. Motorcycle riders may use designated carpool lanes, unless otherwise posted.
Signs at the onramp or along the freeway tell you the minimum number of people required for the carpool and the hours the carpool requirement applies. The pavement in this lane is marked with a diamond symbol (◊) and the words “Carpool Lane.” These lanes are also known as high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. Do not cross over double parallel solid lines to enter or exit any carpool lane except at designated entry or exit places.
Vehicles towing trailers are typically not allowed to use carpool lanes because they must drive more slowly and are usually restricted to the right-hand lane.”
The HOV lane is partitioned off by double yellow lines so that means you can only enter and exit them at certain times. It is also the FAR LEFT lane generally meaning that traffic there would tend to drive the fastest. Again from CA DMV:
“Traffic lanes are often referred to by number. The left or “fast” lane is called the “No. 1 Lane.” The lanes to the right of the No. 1 lane are called the No. 2 lane, then the No. 3 lane. etc.”
So, by that rationale, you’d have to think that people traveling the fastest, with the requisite number of passengers, would be traveling in HOV lanes, right? I mean, after all, the HOV lane description even says trailers are not allowed to use carpool lanes because they must drive more slowly. So you’d figure that the consensus would be that driving in the restricted HOV lane would mean that you are going to be moving among the fastest on the highway.
When roads are more vacant, I’m not convinced this consensus has been established. When I was driving my dear wife to work this morning there was a largely open Rte 134 around 10AM. Everyone had generally already gone to work so the traffic was flowing freely. Naturally I went with my gut instinct and got over to the left. However I’m convinced at less busy times people feel entitled to control the pace of the HOV lane if they have a car which can travel there. During rush hours, slower cars get forced out of HOV lanes. There are too many other people who want to go fast and the pressure is too much for them. But when speed demons can bob and weave their way around the pokey people, the slower feel safer traveling at their own pace, even when that means, like it did today, that 55MPH was going to be the speed in the HOV lane.
After dropping my wife off at work, I got back on to the highway and was in the third lane of five traveling at a brisk enough pace, composing this article in my head. Suddenly a white Range Rover to my right (with no one in front of them) jerked over and abruptly cut me off. Just as fast I moved over one lane to the left and eyed the scared looking woman as I did so. The Range Rover then got in back of me and when I checked my rearview I saw this slow woman crossing the allowed space into the HOV lane! Undoubtedly flummoxing some other fast traveler in back of her with her slow movement.
I guess the HOV lane has no specific definition but you would figure that on an open highway and with plenty of other choices, a cautious traveler would do much better to stay to the right and move freely at their own pace.
Source:
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/hdbk/traffic_lanes.htm
