Should Hybrid cars be allowed in the carpool lane?
I started thinking about this topic today. The point of the carpool lane is to reduce congestion so why are hybrid cars allowed. Also, when the price goes down in hybrid cars (they average $25-$30K) and more people have them will the same carpool rules apply?
No. The point of the carpool lane was to carpooling to lower the volume of traffic. Once hybrids become even more popular, you’ll have lost the merit of HOV when it’s saturated with hybrids carrying only one person. Needless to say, few politicians will want to repeal the HOV bonus for fear of being labelled anti-hybrid. It’s politically easy to drag down the benefits on the original beneficiaries of HOV, it’s much harder to completely take those benefits away from the new beneficiaries.
Mates of State – La’Hov (La Zona Rosa 4/28/09)
