Quote:
Originally Posted by niky
I'd think it's everyone else who needs it... So many people driving solo in big, guzzly cars. If a carpool lane actually goes faster than the rest of the highway, that means there's a massive underutilization of vehicular pasenger capacity sitting there in traffic, with the gasoline-driven AC cooling millions of cubic feet of unoccupied cabin.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr
The allowance of hybrids into the HOV lanes was supposed to be a favorable argument for a full-size SUV owner to get a Prius, or any other hybrid (including a Tahoe ), for daily commuting.
Many people still consider the first-term cost as the most decisive factor while buying a vehicle, not willing to pay so much more for something that is expected to pay itself in a middle to long term. It happened the same way even with the Brazilian ethanol program during the oil crisis...
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This emphasizes my facetious point that HOV lanes should be utilized by gas-guzzlers, and my real point that HOV lanes in general are a bad idea. People find loopholes, private interests make millions of dollars, and no net good is done for the environment or for conservation of resources.
Consider this; you have already paid for the HOV lanes through the use of taxes collected at the fuel pump, but you are denied the right to utilize the infrastructure because you don't meet an arbitrary and changing criteria.
Artificially incentivizing behavior and markets have almost without exception been shown to be pointless at best, and disastrous at worst. The government trying to artificially encourage home ownership was the cause of the U.S. housing collapse and financial meltdown.
The reason behind all of this: politicians want to give "things" to irresponsible people at the tax payers expense to gain votes.