Dear Dr. Gridlock:
I recently used the HOV-2 lanes on Interstate 66 inside the Capital Beltway between 6:30 and 7 a.m. on a weekday. Although retired, my wife and I were traveling to Crystal City that day to attend a seminar.
What a joke HOV is! It is totally out of control.
You have reported that the Virginia Department of Transportation says that 22 percent of vehicles in HOV lanes are violators. I submit that, during my recent experience, the 22 percent figure instead represented legal HOV vehicles.
We saw very few hybrids but counted about 80 percent violators. We passed 10 to 12 vehicles with one person before we passed a vehicle with two or more occupants.
I know that single-occupant vehicles coming from Dulles International Airport can legally be on that section, but we noticed the violators immediately after crossing the Beltway, and the merge with the Dulles Toll Road didn't change the mix at all.
I did see one Virginia State Police vehicle, but one officer against that many violators is like using a fly swatter to stop Godzilla.
There are so many violators with so little enforcement that more and more drivers are willing to take the risk because they know there is little chance of getting caught.
Hybrids are not the problem yet. If Virginia is not willing to step up enforcement, I suggest it abandon the whole HOV program. Why should all the violators get the benefits of HOV while the rest of the law-abiding drivers have to suffer bumper-to-bumper traffic?
Bob Wolfinger
Manassas
You raise a good point. The HOV lanes are at capacity, according to VDOT, which intends to aim its wrath at the exempt fuel-efficient hybrids while ignoring the larger problem of the cheaters, including all those government vehicles and assorted trucks with one occupant that shouldn't be in the HOV lanes.
We are headed toward a transportation catastrophe in the HOV lanes unless the Virginia General Assembly, VDOT and the state police figure out how to curtail the rampant cheating.
Here's one suggestion: Make the first offense a $500 fine and each subsequent offense $1,000. That ought to make some of the violators think twice.
Disabled or Not?
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
What's the deal with handicap license plates and hanging placards? Don't recipients have to prove they have a disability to get them?
While shopping recently at Ikea in Potomac Mills, I witnessed a red Corvette zip into a marked handicapped parking spot. Two twenty-somethings jumped out and hustled toward the entrance. There was a blue handicap placard hanging from the mirror.
