Study: Car pool lanes dont help

[MikeMike]

http://www.leftlanenews.com/2006/04/03/study-car-pool-lanes-dont-help/

 

[purbeast0]

i would think it HURTS traffic because I always see an empty HOV lane but then 2 lanes right of it that are full of traffic ...

that's my study.

 

[sygyzy]

MIKEMIKE loves American Cars and hates the environment. In other late breaking news, today is April 3rd.

 

[Kelemvor]

Just because people don't use them doesn't make them ineffective. THey are great. Carpool once and you can just fly past everyone. That's the whole point is to get more peopel to carpool. Just because people still choose not to is their own problem.

 

[Queasy]

Well, the idea is to get more people into less cars...hence "car pool". I don't think this works in practice though as I more often see the HOV lanes in Atlanta loaded up with cars carrying a mom and one or more kids.

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
MIKEMIKE loves American Cars and hates the environment. In other late breaking news, today is April 3rd.

any relation to this research? thought so.

opening up the HOV lane to regular traffic would allow cars to get better MPG, thus saving the environment...

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: FrankyJunior
Just because people don't use them doesn't make them ineffective. THey are great. Carpool once and you can just fly past everyone. That's the whole point is to get more peopel to carpool. Just because people still choose not to is their own problem.

Except the carpool lanes are almost as congested as the regular lanes are.

I think carpool lanes are a waste of time and money. The only solution is to make the freeways wider or provide better public transportation.

 

[Garet Jax]

I commuted over the bay bridge every day from Oakland to SF. My friends and I always used the carpool lane to get through the tolls. It saved us so much time it was unbelievable. The few days I couldn't use it really sucked.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: FrankyJunior
Just because people don't use them doesn't make them ineffective. THey are great. Carpool once and you can just fly past everyone. That's the whole point is to get more peopel to carpool. Just because people still choose not to is their own problem.

You know, not everyone has a basic job where the hours are fixed every day.

Where I work there are two other people who live reasonably close to where I live. Carpooling with anyone else would result in my driving rather severely out of my way. Additionally, my schedule varies greatly depending on what is rolling out. Some days I only need to be in the office from 9-4, some days I'm here from 6am through 2 am and then back in from 7 am through 5pm the next day. Since none of the other people who live by me are in my department, that means that if we did carpool we would frequently be stranding each other. It's just not practical in many cases.

ZV

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

Originally posted by: sygyzy
MIKEMIKE loves American Cars and hates the environment. In other late breaking news, today is April 3rd.

any relation to this research? thought so.

opening up the HOV lane to regular traffic would allow cars to get better MPG, thus saving the environment...

thats EXACTLY what they dont want..
they want people to ride together.. or ride busses..
after riding bikes and metro for the last 5 years I will never support not having an HOV ever again..
it shaves over 45 minutes each way to ride the metro.. or ride my motorcycle..
if your so opposed to smog and want to help either carpool/ride a bus/or ride a bike..
and then HOV works.. what you dont account for is the thosuands of people riding those busses that park at the park and rides... if those people were in cars in traffic that 1 lane makes little differnce.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Except the carpool lanes are almost as congested as the regular lanes are.

That, or you get the morons in the carpool lane pacing the traffic in the other lanes with miles of clear road ahead of them.

ZV

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: CVSiN

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

Originally posted by: sygyzy
MIKEMIKE loves American Cars and hates the environment. In other late breaking news, today is April 3rd.

any relation to this research? thought so.

opening up the HOV lane to regular traffic would allow cars to get better MPG, thus saving the environment...

thats EXACTLY what they dont want..
they want people to ride together.. or ride busses..
after riding bikes and metro for the last 5 years I will never support not having an HOV ever again..
it shaves over 45 minutes each way to ride the metro.. or ride my motorcycle..
if your so opposed to smog and want to help either carpool/ride a bus/or ride a bike..
and then HOV works.. what you dont account for is the thosuands of people riding those busses that park at the park and rides... if those people were in cars in traffic that 1 lane makes little differnce.

so...

we either have, wasted resources in the HOV lane sitting there barely getting used, or we open it up to every car, and congestion becomes smaller...

ppl who will carpool, will STILL carpool. Zenmervolt said it right, most ppl dont live 4 min from co-workers, they live 15-20 minutes, and typically out of the way.

 

[Crucial]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Originally posted by: FrankyJunior
Just because people don't use them doesn't make them ineffective. THey are great. Carpool once and you can just fly past everyone. That's the whole point is to get more peopel to carpool. Just because people still choose not to is their own problem.

You know, not everyone has a basic job where the hours are fixed every day.

Where I work there are two other people who live reasonably close to where I live. Carpooling with anyone else would result in my driving rather severely out of my way. Additionally, my schedule varies greatly depending on what is rolling out. Some days I only need to be in the office from 9-4, some days I'm here from 6am through 2 am and then back in from 7 am through 5pm the next day. Since none of the other people who live by me are in my department, that means that if we did carpool we would frequently be stranding each other. It's just not practical in my case.

ZV

Your example is so outside the norm it can't be that common.

 

[Linflas]

They help government shirk its responsibility to build the infrastructure necessary to support the development they all so desperately support.

 

[radioouman]

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

Originally posted by: sygyzy
MIKEMIKE loves American Cars and hates the environment. In other late breaking news, today is April 3rd.

any relation to this research? thought so.

opening up the HOV lane to regular traffic would allow cars to get better MPG, thus saving the environment...

In Nashville, they do.

 

[TheTony]

The lane alone is not a means to reduce congestion. They're an incentive to rideshare. Inceased ridesharing is one method of congestion relief.

You can build more lanes every decade, which, by the way, can actually lead to more congestion. Alternatively, you can use the existing lanes more efficiently.

 

[PHiuR]

answer: flying cars.

 

[Jzero]

From the source

Moreover, no increase in carpooling was measured as a result of increased delays in the general purpose lanes either in the short term or in a long-term analysis.

So not only do they not seem to decrease congestion, the possiblity of increased congestion in the "normal" lanes does not seem to entice people to carpool.

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

Originally posted by: CVSiN

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

Originally posted by: sygyzy
MIKEMIKE loves American Cars and hates the environment. In other late breaking news, today is April 3rd.

any relation to this research? thought so.

opening up the HOV lane to regular traffic would allow cars to get better MPG, thus saving the environment...

thats EXACTLY what they dont want..
they want people to ride together.. or ride busses..
after riding bikes and metro for the last 5 years I will never support not having an HOV ever again..
it shaves over 45 minutes each way to ride the metro.. or ride my motorcycle..
if your so opposed to smog and want to help either carpool/ride a bus/or ride a bike..
and then HOV works.. what you dont account for is the thosuands of people riding those busses that park at the park and rides... if those people were in cars in traffic that 1 lane makes little differnce.

so...

we either have, wasted resources in the HOV lane sitting there barely getting used, or we open it up to every car, and congestion becomes smaller...

ppl who will carpool, will STILL carpool. Zenmervolt said it right, most ppl dont live 4 min from co-workers, they live 15-20 minutes, and typically out of the way.

Then do as we do here in Houston.. USE A PARK AND RIDE...
Or a company commuter vanpool as we do here..

everyone drives from thier home to a meeting spot at a park and ride and then they use a vanpool or the metro to ride in..

metros run 24 hours a day in most cities.

and again... if there was no bonus to carpool or ride the bus most people would drive.. so it helps.. and there would be 1000s of more cars on the road...

HOVs work fine.. ride the bus use a vanpool or a carpool and quite making excuses so you can drive your gashogs alone....

that 1 lane.. (Texas has shared lane in the middle of the freeway that changes directions at different times of the day. and it cannot be exited or entered unless you go through a park and ride location.. they have concrete barriers all the way to the end of the line). doesnt hurt anything...

 

[jaedaliu]

what the heck is cal state univ, East Bay? Silly name. The rest of the CSU's are named after the city that they're in.

Originally posted by: TheTony
The lane alone is not a means to reduce congestion. They're an incentive to rideshare. Inceased ridesharing is one method of congestion relief.

You can build more lanes every decade, which, by the way, can actually lead to more congestion. Alternatively, you can use the existing lanes more efficiently.

Yes. and for those of you complaining that nobody at your work lives close to you.... you don't need to carpool with someone at work. find someone else with one of the rideshare services your city should provide.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
MIKEMIKE loves American Cars and hates the environment. In other late breaking news, today is April 3rd.

This JUST in - it is actually April 4th in Australia!!

 

[Aquila76]

In Boston the HOV's are just as backed up as the standard lanes, sometimes moreso depending on what time of day you're going in.

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
That, or you get the morons in the carpool lane pacing the traffic in the other lanes with miles of clear road ahead of them.

ZV

That's another good point that pisses the hell outta me.

 

[FoBoT]

if traffic is slow, build more roads, put in more lanes

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
if traffic is slow, build more roads, put in more lanes

STOP THINKING LOGICALLY!

 

[Bootprint]

Originally posted by: Crucial

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Originally posted by: FrankyJunior
Just because people don't use them doesn't make them ineffective. THey are great. Carpool once and you can just fly past everyone. That's the whole point is to get more peopel to carpool. Just because people still choose not to is their own problem.

You know, not everyone has a basic job where the hours are fixed every day.

Where I work there are two other people who live reasonably close to where I live. Carpooling with anyone else would result in my driving rather severely out of my way. Additionally, my schedule varies greatly depending on what is rolling out. Some days I only need to be in the office from 9-4, some days I'm here from 6am through 2 am and then back in from 7 am through 5pm the next day. Since none of the other people who live by me are in my department, that means that if we did carpool we would frequently be stranding each other. It's just not practical in my case.

ZV

Your example is so outside the norm it can't be that common.

Don't forget to include shift workers.