When the government got into the business of owning the roads – which it does, because it is the government that controls the roads – it got into the business of metering access to roads. As for example via what are styled in the typically clumsy argot of bureaucracy High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes.
HOV lanes are lanes you’re not allowed to use – unless you meet certain criteria set forth by the owner of the roads, which of course is not you. Even though you are the one who pays for them.
We’ll get to that in a minute.
HOV lanes are set aside for people who have passengers – usually at least one (HOV2) and in some cases, two (HOV3). The idea here is to “encourage” people to carpool so as to reduce congestion by reducing the number of vehicles on the road. The word is italicized to make the point that the usage in this context is of a piece with being “asked” to “contribute” to Social Security.
In that you are being told.
In the case of HOV lanes, if you drive on them with just you in the vehicle, you risk being told by an armed government worker to “pull over.” Whereupon you will be handed an extortion note demanding the payment of a “fine” for using the road you paid for.
Which brings us back to that.
The people who are not allowed to use HOV lanes got to pay for them. They did – and do so – every time they buy gasoline or diesel, to the tune of at least 50 cents per gallon and in some states a great deal more than that. Those motor fuels taxes added to the cost of every gallon of gas or diesel are the cost drivers pay to build and maintain the roads.
So how come they are not permitted to use them, if they do not have more than just themselves inside the vehicle? Go back to that part about the government owning the roads. Some will dispute this characterization. They will say the roads are public roads. This is of course Stockholm Syndrome nonsense. It is of a piece with the truly pathetic insistence made by a person pulled over by an armed government worker that I pay your salary!
No. That’s not quite right. You are forced to pay his salary. The distinction matters in that it defines the nature of the relationship.
Similarly, this business about who actually owns the roads. In a pedantic, legalistic sense, it is true the “public” supposedly owns them. Just the same as Stalin’s estates and limousines were all legally “Soviet State Property.” But who controls the state? Stalin did, of course. Who controls the roads? The government does, of course. Ergo, it follows that the government effectively owns the roads as it is the owner who gets to decide how a thing is used and by whom.
Pedantic legalisms notwithstanding.
This is how what would otherwise be obvious outrages are allowed to pass – because we (the ones outraged) have no power to do much if anything about them. And what is outrageous about HOV lanes? Well, for openers, that the motorists who paid for them – via motor fuels excise taxes – are not permitted to use them. Are “fined” if they are caught using them, if they do not have more than just themselves inside the vehicle. Put another way, they are punished for using the roads that they paid for – while others are granted special privileges even though they did not pay extra for them. It is like being told to pay for a first-class airplane ticket but then told you must sit in coach – while people who paid for a coach-class ticket are ushered up to the first-class section.
Such outrages would not occur if the roads really were what they once were – i.e., the public-right-of-way. Meaning that everyone had the same right to use them. George Washington did not have to have Martha on his horse with him in order to use the public-right-of-way and – this is important – neither did the common man. He had the same right to use the same roads as Washington did.
What changed? The public roads became the government’s roads. Not technically, but effectively. Just the same as what you must pay into Social Security is technically a “contribution.”
But HOV lanes help decrease congestion! Certainly. Just the same as limiting the amount of food you’re allowed to buy decreases the amount of food that has to be stocked on supermarket shelves to keep up with demand. But there is almost always plenty of food to keep up with the demand because the supermarket increases the supply in accordance with demand.
What a concept!
Of course, in cognitively dissonant America, the obvious implication is generally not grasped. Instead of more road capacity being added to keep up with demand – paid for by motor fuels taxes – the demand is artificially winnowed by such clumsy methods as HOV lanes.
It is another example of government work. As if more such examples were necessary to make the point.
. . .
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It seems like taking a lane away from the main stream and restricting its access would tend to make congestion worse on the unrestricted lanes. I mean, it seems kind of like an electrical circuit where the cars are electrons, the lanes are conductive paths, but the HOV lanes have a resistor on them. The same number of electrons are still trying to get through.
Maybe that’s an imperfect comparison and I do take advantage of EZ-Pass express going through the beltway when everything is jammed up. But really, if the goal was to get more vehicles through in less time, having more unrestricted lanes would be smarter.
I think that is the point XM: Get traffic backed up and moving slow, giving globalists & crooked governments the perfect excuse to force people off the roads and out of their vehicles entirely. And right into a 15 minute city where you will be herded snd shuffled around like cattle. Never mind that they deliberately caused the congestion in the first place.
If less highway congestion is desired, raise the speed limits.
Less time on the roads, less congestion. Hundred mph or
unlimited would do it. My max comfort zone is ~ 100mph.
We have “Autobahn” roads with silly speed limits.
Probably too complicated for government schooled folds.
I agree –
If people were allowed to drive – the quality of the average driver would go up. Travel time would go down markedly. I can (and have) made it from my place to downtown in about 15 minutes. But it generally takes me half and hour if I am obliged to drive within “the law.” Some (Clovers) will immediately eruct that mayhem will ensue! People will die! And yet, even though I routinely drive mch faster than the speed limit and have for decades, I seem to never lose control of my vehicle or have what is styled an “accident.”
Then again, I do understand – roadways are another
source of government revenue – “stand and deliver”.
Police in my area of Florida have the best of
everything – buildings, weapons, vehicles,
uniforms. They should be quartered in tents.
Republicans absolutely adore police and
anyone in a uniform (UPS?) – and
“law-and-order”.
Same here, liberty –
The local sheriff’s office used to field six old Crown Vics – without radar units. Now they have a fleet of new Explorers all of them with radar. And they are constantly running radar traps. Go figure. More on this shortly.
One to remember – GEICO insurance has
supplied police with radar units, free of course.
So what would happen Eric if every driver there in Virginia gave the Feds and Commonwealth the middle finger and drove in the HOV lane regardless of whether one had any passengers or not? HOV’s seem like one more way to monetarily punish the serfs for having the audacity to exercise freedom by driving alone wherever he/she felt like it.
Morning, Shadow!
Well, if everyone did that, we’d be free... of course, we’re not. Because most people won’t do that.
Aah yes, your comment reminded me of this “Bugs Life” clip. We outnumber them and yet nothing changes. https://youtu.be/VLbWnJGlyMU?si=P2sJbjPE84LWpUkQ
Way off-topic. Another sudden death, probably from the jab. A policeman dies unexpectedly, at age 42:
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2025/05/berea-police-sgt-ean-esposito-remembered-for-service-and-spirit.html
I suspect all members of police and fire departments were required to take the jab.
And here’s another one, a fire cadet dying as result of a “medical emergency” during a physical fitness training session:
https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2025/05/cleveland-fire-cadet-dies-following-medical-emergency-during-training.html
No age is given, but I suspect he was a young man, to be a cadet.
Among the many oldsters dying around here in coastal NC:
A 55 year old avid surfer. I knew of this guy from back in the day in NJ. Dies unexpectedly at home on Mother’s Day. Fit as a fiddle to the day he died.
A 42 year old avid surfer and athlete died unexpectedly in December (just reported on obits here…. Hmmm.)
A 49 year old long time nurse and accomplished boater goes out on his boat the other day in pristine conditions with his dog, goes missing, just found dead. Boat and dog still missing. Recreational boating accident.
Strenuous physical activity strains the heart that has been damaged by the shots and bam, you’re done. Folks are either tapping out on site or when they are recovering at home. I notice as I get older (50s), I sometimes get a “cardiac” type feeling at night after a day of heavy exertion. A little flush, etc. And I’m relatively healthy and fit, no shots. Add a little myocarditis from the safe and effective and it’s gotta be lights out, for real.
Governments mismanage everything, roads of course are obvious. HOV lanes, though, seem to me as maybe a logical extension of the toll road, access being limited to certain drivers willing to do something to gain entry to it. If all roads were really private toll roads then the limits of supply would probably come up with a similar solution to maximize efficiency, e.g. number of people (customers) moved per mile or profit. You’d have first class, business class, coach class roads.
The L.A. basin demonstrates that demand outstrips supply. Land being the hard limit, they ain’t building more of it after all. So roads must compete for other uses, houses, parks, whatever, no matter who’s in control of them. Left to the private sector it’s entirely possible -fewer- roads would be built and demand capped due to the toll/subscription to use it being necessarily market driven. Government has no need to make profit or best use a resource, so a road can be built purely on opinion or sentiment and imminent domain guarantees low cost for land procurement.
About a decade ago a gigantic, years long expansion of I 75 (about 10 miles North of Detroit) was announced. Everyone was very excited for the prospect of less congestion and a faster commute through there once it would be completed. A few months before it was done MI Gov . com proclaimed one lane in each direction would be HOV….cue the Price Is Right loser music! lol
On I-15, Utah has one of the longest continuous HOV lanes in the country. It’s 2+, motorcycle, bus, or toll. The toll price adjusts for how busy the section of roadway is and is assessed as you enter the section. There are electronic signs as you approach the next section giving the toll price and giving enough time for people to opt out by leaving the lane. There are also normal painted signs telling where the next section ends. The tolls are 25 or 35 cents for a section most of the time, but I’ve seen them go as high as $1.75.
To do the toll option, you have to have an EZ-PASS turned on, as there are only electronic toll booths that communicate with your EZ-PASS device as you roll through at full speed. For enforcers, there is a light signal at each booth that will flash amber as a car passes through if there was no valid EZ-PASS read or green if EZ-PASS successfully read the device in the car. With this, enforcers can tell if you were charged for the toll or not and thus enforce against you if you try driving solo in the lane without the device. The light is also positioned so that the car driver can see if their EZ-PASS was successfully read.
Now the real kicker with this is that there are those who treat the HOV lane as a license to go as fast as they can (enforcers love patrolling this as the payin’ papers get quite expensive). There are others who refuse to go above the speed limit in that lane, leading to the speed demons swerving across the double white line twice to get around them adding two high dollar HOV “violations” to the payin’ paper if they’re caught. If there’s an accident that’s not on an exit or entrance ramp or doesn’t involve a semi, you’re almost guaranteed that it’s in the HOV lane. During construction on a section, the toll/HOV rules are waved and the lane is treated as a normal traffic lane. Thus, the lane doesn’t really work to ease traffic or give car pool people a faster commute, it is there to enforce a desired behavior and earn revenue for the state.
>Of course, in cognitively dissonant America, the obvious implication is generally not grasped. Instead of more road capacity being added to keep up with demand – paid for by motor fuels taxes – the demand is artificially winnowed
And not just limited access highways, either. The latest insanity involves narrowing surface streets to create an “automobile hostile” (my terminology – they call it something else) environment.
Here is what the residents think of it:
https://seeclickfix.com/issues/18492040
Sane thing here Adi, especially in the People’s Republic of Cambridge where they hate cars. They call it “traffic calming” but it makes me the opposite of calm for sure.
>People’s Republic of Cambridge
Takes me back, Mike. 🙂
They did a traffic calming re-adjustment near me. People who did not live in the neighborhood hated it but the people who pushed the project did so because a kid got hit so they had the emotional momentum behind them. It’s a give and take because people did drive like maniacs through this part of town, but that’s due to lack of viable alternatives. There’s a ring road but you’ll go 10 miles around to get 2 miles between points. The streets used to be 2 lanes but surface streets with stop signs every other block. Naturally that’s too many so people developed over the decades this rolling yield technique. Even cops do it, hardly anyone gets a stop sign extortion slip unless it’s egregious, like not even tapping your brakes. So the calming is a reaction to through travelers who probably should have been more respectful and careful. The problem seems to me a cat-and-mouse, drive like a moron is OK as long as you don’t get caught when it should be accept individual responsibility and try to co-exist so we don’t need playground monitors as barely more than emotional-stunned adult sized children. I don’t like speed limits but not having them would require a driver to travel as a reasonable speed and be aware of surroundings and his vehicle’s capability. The cars have been so regulated as to be impossible to drive, so “assist” is necessary just to operate it by the dumbed down average person. The whole thing is a death spiral that can’t be fixed, it must follow it’s inevitable path to Idiocracy, fail and then all be done again. No one can know if the lifecycle each time is single digit generational or measured in centuries. But someone in the future will look back at this time and will only be able to shake their head in disbelief.
>George Washington did not have to have Martha on his horse with him
Maybe not, but these days we are all Templars:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_the_grand_master_of_the_Knights_Templar
>The Templar Seal showing two knights (perhaps Hugues de Payens and Godfrey de Saint-Omer) on one horse. There are many interpretations of the symbolism of this seal.
>Contemporary legend held that the symbol represented the initial poverty of the order; that they could afford only a single horse for every two men.
And of course, George Washington was known to be a Freemason, and there is an order of Freemasons which calls themselves Knights Templar:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar_(Freemasonry)
So, evidently, HOV lanes are positively Washingtonian! Who knew? 🙂
FWIW, I have always, for some reason, thought of these things as the “HIV” lanes. Don’t ask me why. The human mind plays its tricks… 🙂
‘George Washington did not have to have Martha on his horse with him.’ — eric
TSA now features an HOV-lane system called preCheck. First TSA created l-o-o-o-o-n-g security lines, and indignities such as removing your shoes and spreading your legs and arms in a scanning device. Now you can buy your way out of this hassle with one of three different third-party vendors:
https://www.tsa.gov/precheck
Well, if you have a REAL-ID, that is. Otherwise you’ll be waving a fistful of dollahs and hollering ‘Take my money — PLEASE!‘ as they call the cops to come and haul you away.
It’s the same thing that happened during Soviet days, if a prole attempted to slip into the GUM department store in Moscow, which was only for the nomenklatura and foreign tourists with dollars.
Know your place, serf.
The tolling system vendors have been working on HOV enforcement automated systems to count vehicle occupants using multiple cameras aimed into the cabin tied to AI.
Five years ago, this was boondoggle tech to enhance engineer resumes and career prospects inside the vendors, but the systems may actually have a chance of working now as computer hardware for AI rapidly evolves.
Train that camera on my upraised middle finger.
One way of looking at HOV lanes is to look at it as rationing; like health care is in socialist countries. The apparatchiks get a reduced traffic lane and the peasants get bumper to bumper traffic.
I’ve seen HOV lanes that were OK for EVs but not for motorcycles.
Vehicles with “disabled” plates also get a pass.
Everyone discharged from the military these days tries to get a disability rating.
Contrary to popular belief, VA healthcare is not free for any discharged service member, but enough people leaving the service manage to get something to the point that the VA is a $350 billion annual budget and provider to … 1 in 19 … ? … people in the US.
I haven’t kept up with the numbers.
When I commuted on a motorcycle I paid the same tolls for my 400lb bike as a 5000lb Escalade that causes far more wear and tear to the road. And of course EVs are just as heavy. Also lane-splitting is illegal but the more bikes that commute and the more lane-splitting they do…well that means less cars sitting in traffic which means…less traffic overall. But that makes too much sense.
As far as HOV lanes go I don’t live in a state that uses them anymore but if I did I would buy a couple mannequins and cruise in them just out of spite.
Weight is probably one of the main measurements a private road would use to determine your use price. I’m a civil engineer (yeah, hate on me) but we’re dealing with this with them pushing EVs. A normal passenger car now wears the road as fast as loaded commercial trucks once did.
The cost for this isn’t rolled back into the system. It worked fine for years because gas taxes were a pretty fair measure, a heavier vehicle used more gas, the more you drove the more gas you used. You also used to have to pay a higher registration fee if you exceeded 6000 lbs GVW. The market worked around these things because arbitrary exceptions for private (non-commercial) owners or a Tesla being “small” in size and a passenger car isn’t weighed.
So as imperfect and dishonest it all is in principle as it worked practically speaking because a heavily traveled road would also generate more tax revenue. Now we see surface streets wearing as fast as the truck routes. These are streets that we used to have to consider maybe a garbage truck once a week, maybe a UPS/FedEx truck daily. Now they might see this same level of use hourly so wear has accelerated by an order of magnitude. A street resurface that used to last 5 or 10 years might last a year or two now before it’s grooved or crumbling.
The blue states are starting to roll out extra registration fees for EVs after trying to convince everyone to buy them in order to cover the loss in gas taxes. Boy did they get suckered.
GovCo’s desire for money and power is insatiable. Actually, it’s the people that seek its employ that fit that description. Are ALL people employed by GovCo greedy and power mad? No. But, it certainly is a resume’ enhancement.
And as with any large organization it is the psychopath that will throw their own Mother under the bus for advancement that reach the pinnacle of the beast.
https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/2bsvudkf0kpf5r4kkaosg/portfolio/the-psychopath-in-the-corner-office
HOV lanes are just another example of Orwell’s “some are more equal than others” dictum.
I find Lexus Lanes more irksome. The government adds more lanes, but you must pay a toll to use those lanes. And for that matter, tolls – every time you cross some bridge or a state line, for the same roads you paid for. And jack up the tolls for all those trucks passing through, all then baked into the cost of the freight. And while I’m on the subject, this concept of congestion tolling or pricing, which I expect to gain more traction, has got to go.
Amen, BAC –
Lexus Lanes are a fine example of regressive taxation. The least able to afford the expense are the ones who pay it – and in more than just monetary terms.
In Viriginia, VDOT sold the HOV lanes to a private interest, Transurban, to create “Lexus Lanes” albeit with a discount on the tolls for vehicles with 2+ occupants.
For now.
The same technology which enables this conversion is behind congestion tolling in NYC. The goal is every piece of roadway in Manhattan below Central Park will be tolled.
As a practical matter they work, though. Designed to keep that part of the highway operating at a high level of service (B and above), they use flexible rates to discourage traffic from entering. For those willing to pay, it is okay. They only issue I have with them is that you you have to sign a contract with a toll agency and of course, puke all of your personal information up.
>As a practical matter they work, though. Designed to keep that part of the highway operating at a high level of service (B and above), they use flexible rates
A few weeks ago, I was raveling home to Riverside County, CA from Orange County, CA via the infamous California SR91, sometimes known as the most congested highway in California.
The eastbound “pay to play” lanes were congested, at mid afternoon, and traffic using them was moving slowly. The free lanes (remember “freeways?”) had very light traffic.
I was laughing as I drove past the gullible chumps who had paid for the privilege of traveling slower than the free alternative. Don’t have any idea how any of *them* felt about it. 🙂 How do you feel about “upgrading to premium,” suckers?
The “next level” of technology will obviously be to install “pop up” lane barriers on the free lanes. then, using modern technology, the relative speeds of traffic using the free and toll lanes can be monitored in real time.
In case the free lanes are moving faster than the toll lanes, one or more “pop up” lane barriers can be raised (by automatic remote control) in order to guarantee that the serfs (free riders) have a less favorable experience than the nomenklatura in their chauffeured ZILs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomenklatura#/media/File:Limusina_ZiL-115_-_San_Petersburgo-007.jpg
SR91 was giving EVs a free ride when the express lanes from Riverside to Anaheim opened five years ago.
The flexible rates have a limit dictated by political concerns in a lot of authorities so the congestion reduction is limited..
Ha! Lexus Lanes, I love the name.
Here, in the Bay Area of CA, they didn’t add these Lexus Lanes, but instead, converted 1-2 existing lanes to toll lanes. This, too, was going to reduce traffic somehow, but shockingly, had the opposite effect.
The tolls to use the Lexus Lanes are high, $2-3 per exit (like 1/8 to 1/4 mile) in the areas that I frequent. Of course, the privileged class doesn’t need to pay. Maybe this is the point, to reserve some lanes for our overlords and their bosses because traffic sucks, so why should the privileged be stuck in it?