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Actually, carpool cheaters are not getting out of your way and can most definitely slow you down if they're going the same way you are. Unless the carpool lane

Actually, carpool cheaters are not getting out of your way and can most definitely slow you down if they're going the same way you are. Unless the carpool lane runs all the way to your destination, or at least through the source of the traffic jam, the cheaters will need to rejoin the normal traffic flow at some point, and they will be merging in front of you instead of behind you because they cheated. So every cheating car that passes you in the carpool lane and takes a similar path through a bottleneck later is actually delaying you. The same is not true of actual carpool cars taking the lane, because while they put one additional car between you and your destination (like the cheaters), they also offset that by removing at least one car from the road entirely (unlike the cheaters). More simply, carpool cheaters are cutting in line, which does slow down the line for everyone they cut in front of.

Stratoscope 11y ago
Oh! I hadn't thought of that angle at all. Thanks for explaining it. Well, I'm glad I posted my comment even if I was off base - your reply and the others gave me much food for thought. (And to everyone else who replied, thank you too!)
nostrademons 11y ago
On a multi-lane highway, the carpool that cuts in front of you puts one extra car ahead of you, but there was only a 1/N chance that the car they took off the road would've been in your lane otherwise. So yes, they do slow you down. The other interesting irrationality is that every other car on the road also slows you down by exactly the same amount as the cheater, yet we're rarely as indignant about the other poor saps on the road as we are about carpool cheaters. So there is definitely a fairness aspect to this; we shrug off folks who inconvenience us with minor annoyance as long as they play by "the rules" for inconveniencing us, but we get mad as soon as someone inconveniences us by not playing by the rules.
- rcthompson 11y ago
  The difference is that the cheater is only slowing you down because they're cheating. Otherwise they'd be behind you. We understand that limited road access is allocated on a first come first serve basis, and cheaters are subverting that.

Stratoscope 11y ago

Oh! I hadn't thought of that angle at all. Thanks for explaining it. Well, I'm glad I posted my comment even if I was off base - your reply and the others gave me much food for thought. (And to everyone else who replied, thank you too!)

nostrademons 11y ago

On a multi-lane highway, the carpool that cuts in front of you puts one extra car ahead of you, but there was only a 1/N chance that the car they took off the road would've been in your lane otherwise. So yes, they do slow you down. The other interesting irrationality is that every other car on the road also slows you down by exactly the same amount as the cheater, yet we're rarely as indignant about the other poor saps on the road as we are about carpool cheaters. So there is definitely a fairness aspect to this; we shrug off folks who inconvenience us with minor annoyance as long as they play by "the rules" for inconveniencing us, but we get mad as soon as someone inconveniences us by not playing by the rules.

rcthompson 11y ago
The difference is that the cheater is only slowing you down because they're cheating. Otherwise they'd be behind you. We understand that limited road access is allocated on a first come first serve basis, and cheaters are subverting that.