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> But if you look at it purely in terms of your own self-interest, the opposite is true. It's one less car in your lane slowing you down - no different at all f
by mhurron 11y ago
> But if you look at it purely in terms of your own self-interest, the opposite is true. It's one less car in your lane slowing you down - no different at all from an actual carpooler. The "carpool cheater" is doing you a favor by getting out of your way. You will arrive at your destination sooner, thanks to the cheater!
On paper perhaps, but unless one car is a significant portion of the traffic on the road between you and your destination, one less car means nothing to you.
The reality is that you got to your destination at the same time you otherwise would have, and the cheater benefited from an action he had no right to take.
- chc 11y agoThe point is that each person taking the carpool lane helps you out a little bit and does not hurt you at all. The amount of value you derive from any one person cheating is very small, but every person who does it is benefitting you very slightly. From a perspective of self-interest, we should hope that as many people as possible take the carpool lane, so getting mad over it is an example of people prioritizing community standards over their own interests.
- privong 11y agoTaking your argument to its logical extension, it then just be optimal to not have carpool-specific lanes at all, and have those be normal lanes. Practically speaking, that might very well be true. I do not know how effective carpool lanes are at incentivizing car pooling and reducing the overall number of vehicles on the road. (I suspect they're minmally effective, but I have no data to back that up).
- sgc 11y agoI looked into this after they spent a billion in the north bay just to add empty carpool lanes. First of all, many people are unable to change their work habits to accommodate carpooling, and thus a major use of the carpool is simply bringing children to school. Since California is one of the only places in the world with carpool lanes, the studies mainly come from CA universities. Their studies point to a negative effect of carpool lanes on traffic in almost all traffic scenarios, because they are underutilized. Coupled with the fact that they add only negative value for every car that can access them without changing driving habits, there is a reason they have not caught on more widely. My personal evaluation was that they serve a political purpose rather than a practical one, and we pay hard cash for that.