• Carpool Lanes - Are they bullshit?
    11 replies, posted
So, I started thinking about the odd concept of carpool lanes and started to realize some things. So first to clarify carpool lanes aim to: a) Lower Traffic b) Save Gas / Help environment c) Make travel faster Now, if you look at the whole thing, since cars with a higher person:car ratio are more likely to be able to travel faster you do get an increase in travelspeed/person. I don't deny this, more people are able to travel faster, which sounds pretty good. But one important thing is that this only applies as long as people in the carpool lane are able to travel faster than any other lane. As soon as they travel at the same speed, this effect is lost and the situation is the same as if there was no carpool lane. Now if we change perspective and look at the travelspeed/car it becomes obvious that as long as the carpool lane is moving faster than the others, the travelspeed/car ratio is actually lowered. Why? Between every car on the carpool lane there is unused potential travel, which means that this potential travel that would otherwise be in the system, usable by all cars, is unused, slowing down overall traffic. A car pool lane is only effective if (Number of Carpool lanes ) / ( Number of normal lanes ) is greater than ( Carpooling Cars ) / ( Normal Cars ) , as soon as it is lower the carpool lane can not be effectively utilized and becomes therefore irrelevant. With this in mind we realize that the potential travel lost always affects more cars in total, leaving more cars in travel for a longer period of time, having more cars in traffic at all times. There is one thing left to be discussed that many people think is the reason why carpool lanes are effective. Because of carpool lanes, people will carpool, use less cars and therefore we save gas, etc. I think this is total bullshit and entirely irrelevant. Anyone who is able to carpool and only does it because of a carpool lane is a completely fucktard. If 2 people go the same direction or to the same place it's common sense to share a car. If people work at the same place and it's possible for them to carpool they should do it whether there are carpool lanes or not. That's all I have to say. What do you think? P.S. I know this seems rather random but I mentioned car pool lanes to a girl I like ( She is from the US, I'm from Austria, we don't have them, so I asked about them ) and after I realized all of this and saying it a stupid argument started and I still believe that I am correct and I thought I would go here and vent about it maybe discuss this with you people even though it's a rather random thing to talk about ).
Carpool lanes put soft pressure on making sure you carpool so I see nothing wrong with them to be honest. IN fact I consider them beneficial as well. That said, they generally only work in the US due to one important factor - they tend to have huge massive roads with far more lanes than is common in Europe. As such they can actually afford to use this extra lane for this soft pressure. Whcih would be impossible in Europe due to already overextended roads.
They should be renamed "Family Lanes." I've literally never seen anyone carpool in order to use those lanes. Now, they might carpool to save money on gas, but that's about it. So called carpool lanes end up being lanes that families and friends use when they happen to be traveling together. I live in Southern California by the way, almost every freeway has one.
[QUOTE=wraithcat;41403844]Carpool lanes put soft pressure on making sure you carpool so I see nothing wrong with them to be honest. IN fact I consider them beneficial as well. That said, they generally only work in the US due to one important factor - they tend to have huge massive roads with far more lanes than is common in Europe. As such they can actually afford to use this extra lane for this soft pressure. Whcih would be impossible in Europe due to already overextended roads.[/QUOTE] How many people do you think have carpooled because of that and not because they would've done so anyways? Think about it, I can't come up with a single situation where you would carpool because of carpool lanes and not because you should/would anyways.
I would do away with them, honestly. Nobody carpools because of them, everyone's always abusing them and trying to find ways to game the system...they don't help any. Just open them up to normal travel and call it a day. [QUOTE=XoX;41404092]How many people do you think have carpooled because of that and not because they would've done so anyways? Think about it, I can't come up with a single situation where you would carpool because of carpool lanes and not because you should/would anyways.[/QUOTE] Exactly. I don't carpool because it's a pain in the ass. I live way out in the fucking sticks and there's nobody remotely close to me going to the same places I am most days. So I'm a solo driver. Any gas that might be saved by carpooling I'd lose detouring to pick up the passenger anyway, possibly even using more gas since my ride isn't the most efficient thing on the road.
Also, I pay for the roads with my taxes and should therefore get to use the entire road. If they want to make carpool roads come with tolls and take them out of the tax figures so be it, but don't make me pay for something I can't use without jumping through a loop hole.
Carpool lanes are beneficial not only for the pressure to carpool but they're pretty important for public transit that relies on a schedule. Without them, I don't think that the schedules would be as reliable.
Are we talking about HOV lanes here or is this a more local thing, like in cities?
Yeah. That's what a carpool lane is. [editline]11th July 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Shadaez;41406829]Carpool lanes are beneficial not only for the pressure to carpool[/quote] They aren't. There's little pressure to carpool as it is, and the lanes themselves add absolutely none. Enforcement is so scattered, and in my area completely nonexistent, not to mention they're only carpool lanes in certain time blocks, so people just shrug and drive in them solo anyway. They don't make anyone want to carpool. Why go to the bother of arranging carpooling when you won't get a ticket for driving in that lane alone anyway?
Actually, the many times I've used HOV it seemed as if people weren't aware it isnt well enforced. The lanes are usually empty, if any cars are present. Now thats different when you get into DC but DC is a different story. I would like to see more effective carpooling lanes, such as a tax break maybe but thats asking for miracles right?
It's ignored as if there isn't any markings at all here. Cops don't even bother trying to nab people, I've lost count of how many solo drivers have trundled right past highway patrol in the HOV lane during HOV hours without getting busted. Oh, and I've seen many an 18 wheeler exploit them to avoid the morons in the normal lanes without a care in the world, which again is entirely ignored by the cops on the road. Personally I'd be all for getting rid of them entirely.
Did anyone actually take the time to read my post and see why they are actually 100% irrelevant and even worse, cause more issues than they solve? The only thing they can do is make travel faster for carpoolers sometimes. But they don't help the environment, they don't reduce traffic and most of the time they do the opposite of that.
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