Study: Car pool lanes dont help

[Shmalls]

Originally posted by: PHiuR
answer: flying cars.

I like this idea. lets do that.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: 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

LOL. You've noticed that too?

 

[Demon-Xanth]

I think carpool lanes are a good idea.

Allowing people with hybrids and the like in there to use them with a single occupant is just assinine though. Having a cleaner running car doesn't help congestion.

 

[Linflas]

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

That would add to the cost side of the development ledger and governments avoid intelligent budgeting at all costs. Why should they do that when they have been so successful at getting their constituents to blame themselves for the problem for the past 40 years?

 

[Akhen]

I smell something awefully fishy

 

[zanieladie]

I read something recently (can't recall where) about a person who put blow-up dolls in his car so he could travel the HOV lanes. He had clothes on them and everything in an attempt to make them look like people. :Q

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: zanieladie
I read something recently (can't recall where) about a person who put blow-up dolls in his car so he could travel the HOV lanes. He had clothes on them and everything in an attempt to make them look like people. :Q

yah or the lady that said her Unborn fetus counted as a person....

I call in on the HOV hero lines plate numbers of violators all the time..
lately they had a crapload of motorcycle Metro cops ticketing at several points..
boy I laugh so hard when these morons get yanked..

 

[ElFenix]

in houston the HOV lane was built by the city bus company to make the buses run more on time. the earlier built ones were probably some of the first ones in the country in that they are single lanes that are walled off in the middle of the road. makes for a hell of a time if there is an accident in the HOV, as a truck then has to back all the way down it from one of the two or three entrances.

the way it is set up with extremely limited access makes it very easy to find carpoolers. just go to the express bus depot in the suburbs and ask for someone or two who needs to go to the downtown bus terminal (which is where they're going anyway).

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
in houston the HOV lane was built by the city bus company to make the buses run more on time. the earlier built ones were probably some of the first ones in the country in that they are single lanes that are walled off in the middle of the road. makes for a hell of a time if there is an accident in the HOV, as a truck then has to back all the way down it from one of the two or three entrances.

the way it is set up with extremely limited access makes it very easy to find carpoolers. just go to the express bus depot in the suburbs and ask for someone or two who needs to go to the downtown bus terminal (which is where they're going anyway).

yah I posted this a few posts up..
I have to say though in the last few years of using it never had an issue with wrecks in it.. sometimes a stall but you can sually get around that with little delay.
I sometimes wish there were more entrances but then I remeber how bad California was with morons using it when they were alone to dart in and out of the fast lane.. causign even more slowdown..

main problem with Houston is if you get someone going 45mph when its a posted 70 the commute can and does really suck..

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
the way it is set up with extremely limited access makes it very easy to find carpoolers. just go to the express bus depot in the suburbs and ask for someone or two who needs to go to the downtown bus terminal (which is where they're going anyway).

There was an article a while back about people doing this regularly in DC at car pools. They call it "slugging". Where people would literally line up at car pool parking lots waiting for someone to come by and give them a ride. The person giving the ride would get to use the diamond lanes and the guy riding gets a free ride. One can say that it's a collision of communism and free market economies at work.

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth

Originally posted by: ElFenix
the way it is set up with extremely limited access makes it very easy to find carpoolers. just go to the express bus depot in the suburbs and ask for someone or two who needs to go to the downtown bus terminal (which is where they're going anyway).

There was an article a while back about people doing this regularly in DC at car pools. They call it "slugging". Where people would literally line up at car pool parking lots waiting for someone to come by and give them a ride. The person giving the ride would get to use the diamond lanes and the guy riding gets a free ride. One can say that it's a collision of communism and free market economies at work.

I slugged for 3 months before I completely dropped out of the commuting rat race. It is a situation unique to the HOV lanes on I95 going into DC from Virginia because these 2 lanes are physically separate from the other lanes of travel with very few exits until they get within 3 miles of DC. In the early afternoon they reverse the direction and use these same lanes for the outbound HOV traffic. There are really only 3 major destinations in DC that the sluggers go to, The Pentagon/Crystal City area, 14th Street between the Treasury and Pennsylvania Avenue, and the 18th street corridor.

 

[AlienCraft]

Originally posted by: PHiuR
answer: flying cars.

And conveyor belts !!

 

[AlienCraft]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth

Originally posted by: ElFenix
the way it is set up with extremely limited access makes it very easy to find carpoolers. just go to the express bus depot in the suburbs and ask for someone or two who needs to go to the downtown bus terminal (which is where they're going anyway).

There was an article a while back about people doing this regularly in DC at car pools. They call it "slugging". Where people would literally line up at car pool parking lots waiting for someone to come by and give them a ride. The person giving the ride would get to use the diamond lanes and the guy riding gets a free ride. One can say that it's a collision of communism and free market economies at work.

People do this in Berkely and in Oakland, and as a former Bay Area commuter, it was a GOD SEND!

One issue I see that wasn't addressed in the study is people with the requisite number of people in car staying in the NOn - HOV lane rather than UNCONGESTING the lane they're in by driving in the HOV lane.
This happens here in The Sacramento area as well.

 

[Philippine Mango]

Originally posted by: CVSiN

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...

They've got that in so-cal as well...

 

[theeedude]

If you live in the bay area, you know that already. In areas where there is a 3-7pm carpool lane, congestion falls off immediately at 7pm. I work from 10-7 instead of 8-5 for that exact reason.

 

[sniperruff]

HOV encourage people to car pool, eliminating a car off the road, using less gasoline, lower emissions, thus saving the environment. next!

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
The only solution is to make the freeways wider or provide better public transportation.

It's been shown that that doesn't work. You make the freeways wider and wider, and more and more cars will appear to clog them up. It's amazing. Sometimes you can relieve the problem for a couple years if you build TONS of extra lanes, but then more people move in and the problem is just as bad. Same as getting rid of the carpool lanes...that wouldn't help traffic at all, because fewer people would carpool, and more cars would be on the road, thus making it just as congested for EVERYONE. At least with carpool lanes a FEW people get to go fast.

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE
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.

You have a weak grasp of human nature, or at least American nature.


oh, and, from the study:

The HOV lanes have a vehicle flow of 1600 per hour, compared with 2000 per hour for a standard lane. This difference offsets the people-moving capacity of these lanes.

hmm, 1600x2.2 people = 3520 people per hour
2000 x 1.1 people (very few people will be in the regular lane with multiple passengers, but some will) = 2200 people per hour.

I notice in the study they assumed 1.4 people PER VEHICLE in the non-carpool lanes. No basis for that absurdly high assumption. Sounds to me like those "researchers" are just drivers who don't carpool and hate people who do.

yet another edit: and that's not all! They have the audacity to claim that the vehicle-per-hour-rating of a SOV lane during non-rush hours to that of the HOV lane during rush hour. That, and the fact that the researchers don't put any sort of degree or position by their names, tells me that this "research" is the product of two students who have learned how to make statistics lie.

 

[Pepsi90919]

they put HOV lanes on the 403 and 410. nobody uses them.

 

[brtspears2]

Carpool lanes with limited entry/exit zones cause plenty of problems. Always near the entry/exit area, if the main road is congested, you have two horrible situations. Cars wanting to enter the carpool lane, but have to accelerate from 0 to carpool lane speeds. The other situation that stinks is the opposite of this. Carpool lane speed, but traffic stuck at 0, no exit.

It is a great idea, but I think the term carpool has to be redefined. A mom and kids in the lane is not reducing traffic. A mom transporting the neighborhood kids to the soccer game, that is a reduction in traffic. It would be hard to prove it though.

 

[sniperruff]

oh wait. rush-hour-only HOV FTW!

 

[theeedude]

Originally posted by: sniperruff
oh wait. rush-hour-only HOV FTW!

That's what we have in the bay area, and it's better than all time HOV lane, but not as good as no HOV lane.

 

[Linux23]

Let me ask a serious question?

Do they actually have any intelligent people designing highways? I mean, most congestion is normally at the highway entry/exit ramps. Maybe if they were designed better, the flow of traffic can be a little smoother.

I mean, I don't commute to work via car, but I am so sick of traffic.

 

[mwtgg]

Originally posted by: Linux23
Let me ask a serious question?

Do they actually have any intelligent people designing highways? I mean, most congestion is normally at the highway entry/exit ramps. Maybe if they were designed better, the flow of traffic can be a little smoother.

I mean, I don't commute to work via car, but I am so sick of traffic.

I know what you mean. If anyone is familiar with the Philadelphia area (it's all I know), they could tell you exactly where there's going to be congestion because it happens there EVERY SINGLE DAY.

 

[Goosemaster]

I am undecided o nthe issue, but will attest to the fact, that during rush hour on 395, sometiems EVERYTHING is gridlocked.

 

[randomlinh]

all I have to say is I usually can make it by faster than the HOV lanes ~70% of the time it seems... up until a point tho... but even if I did use HOV, i'd end up being one of the idiots blocking traffic to get over in a lane (the HOV lane ends HOV requirements and < 1/4 later dumps straight into an exit.. stupid stupid design).