Car Pool Chaos
In the newspaper business, it is often joked that two occurrences makes a coincidence. For a trend story, you need three examples. That’s apparently the number of people the L.A. Times found for its article on hybrid car owners griping about the size of the stickers they must post on their cars in order to drive solo in car pool lanes. The Times then felt compelled to slam hybrid owners a second time on the editorial page as whiners.
Regardless of how hybrid owners feel about defacing their cars with yellow stickers, the whole idea is flawed in more ways than the Dodger pitching staff. For starters, why are we letting hybrids drive in the carpool lanes solo? The purpose of car pool lanes is not to save gas, but to discourage people from driving by themselves. In other words, to CAR POOL.
In fact, kids shouldn’t count as passengers for the purpose of car pool lanes. Putting a kid or two in the car doesn’t reduce the number of cars on the road. It probably just increases the numbers of gas-guzzling SUVs and minivans.
(When’s the last time you saw a family with even one kid driving a sedan, the way millions of parents did for most of the 20th century?) But I digress.
If the intent of car pool lanes were to save gas, then Hummers, Escalades, and Expeditions should be banned from the lanes no matter how many soccer teams or posses they’re carrying. Allowing single-passenger hybrids into car pool lanes won’t alleviate traffic one bit. It will just clog up the car pool lanes with solo drivers
The sticker idea is equally misguided. As dumb as the idea is, if you want to allow hybrids into the car pool lane, why not make a special license plate for them so police can track them? Those would be a whole lot more identifiable than any little stickers without defacing cars. You could even charge a small fee for them, something most owners would be happy to pay for.
How long does anybody expect it will be before counterfeit Car Pool Lane OK stickers start appearing on the Internet? As the number of hybrids multiplies, it will be increasingly difficult for police to distinguish between real hybrids and ones disguised as hybrids, especially at 70mph. And when hybrid SUVs are allowed into the car pool lanes, any ass with a Tahoe will be able to slap on a bogus sticker that allows him to both guzzle gas and clog the carpool lane.
Regardless of how hybrid owners feel about defacing their cars with yellow stickers, the whole idea is flawed in more ways than the Dodger pitching staff. For starters, why are we letting hybrids drive in the carpool lanes solo? The purpose of car pool lanes is not to save gas, but to discourage people from driving by themselves. In other words, to CAR POOL.
In fact, kids shouldn’t count as passengers for the purpose of car pool lanes. Putting a kid or two in the car doesn’t reduce the number of cars on the road. It probably just increases the numbers of gas-guzzling SUVs and minivans.
(When’s the last time you saw a family with even one kid driving a sedan, the way millions of parents did for most of the 20th century?) But I digress.
If the intent of car pool lanes were to save gas, then Hummers, Escalades, and Expeditions should be banned from the lanes no matter how many soccer teams or posses they’re carrying. Allowing single-passenger hybrids into car pool lanes won’t alleviate traffic one bit. It will just clog up the car pool lanes with solo drivers
The sticker idea is equally misguided. As dumb as the idea is, if you want to allow hybrids into the car pool lane, why not make a special license plate for them so police can track them? Those would be a whole lot more identifiable than any little stickers without defacing cars. You could even charge a small fee for them, something most owners would be happy to pay for.
How long does anybody expect it will be before counterfeit Car Pool Lane OK stickers start appearing on the Internet? As the number of hybrids multiplies, it will be increasingly difficult for police to distinguish between real hybrids and ones disguised as hybrids, especially at 70mph. And when hybrid SUVs are allowed into the car pool lanes, any ass with a Tahoe will be able to slap on a bogus sticker that allows him to both guzzle gas and clog the carpool lane.
posted by John Rosenthal @ 4:36 PM
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