1. You are aware that encouraging carpooling reduces peak roadway capacity required, right? And that building peak capacity is the most expensive roadway to build?

2. You are aware that the HOV lanes in question were originally intended as “BRT” or bus-only lanes, to provide a public transit alternative to driving? It’s only to use the “extra” bus lane capacity that HOV-3 is allowed. The alternatives are “no one gets anything” (e.g., buses only in the busway), or “free for all”, (e.g., anyone can use the busway and demand would rise to fill capacity, and the buses would be stuck in traffic, discouraging ridership and exacerbating the problem.

3. The real problem is that the HOV restrictions are based on an outdated understanding of the traffic patterns in DC. The restrictions should run until the normal lanes are no longer congested. I don’t travel that corridor, but I expect that if you ran the HOV restrictions until 6:30 or 6:45, there wouldn’t be people waiting for the minute the lanes open, because the regular lanes would be just as fast.

I’m beginning to sour on your site. You offer nothing but snark and criticism, you don’t acknowledge the political realities on the ground (e.g., VA won’t raise any money for transportation, so how do you expect us to spend more on improving the roads or rail), and you seem to have trouble looking past the end of your nose for why things are the way they are. You resort to comparing any form of government intervention in what is most decidedly not a free market as Communism.

This whole blog could be a giant troll to catch reasonable smart growth and transit advocates, but I’m not so sure.