Posted by
Mr. Anonymous on Sunday, April 08, 2007 1:43:32 AM
It's reported on the news that the police are cracking down on drivers traveling in the HOV lanes on the east side. I suppose this is welcome news. The Seattle Times had an
article on April 4 indicating that 5 police cars, in conjunction with a helicopter, patrolled the area near Preston and nailed 31 people in 3 hours. A couple of people were going over 90, and one was at 104. So, 31 people in 3 hours means about 10 cars per hour, or about 1 every 6 minutes.
I suppose that's a good thing. But I think there are times when such enforcement is just salt in the wound. For example, a couple months ago I was making my usual commute home from Kirkland to Issaquah on a day when it snowed heavily in the afternoon. It took me about 4 hours to make that commute and a lot of it was spent sitting on the freeway in south Bellevue. I noticed at that time a couple of cop cars that were sitting in certain spots to catch HOV offenders. On that particular day I think they should have opened up all the lanes to everybody and try to clear the freeways as quickly as possible. For all the whining about CO2 emissions and global warming, what effect does it have for cars to sit, running, on the freeway for 3 or 4 hours without moving much?
And there are times when the traffic is blocked by an accident or some other problem. Couldn't we suspend the HOV rules during those times in order to benefit the entire population using the freeways, rather than worry excessively over improper HOV use? The situation seems to call for a little reasonableness intelligently applied.