The Absurdity of Fastrak and the HOV lanes

The state of California continues with the ridiculous HOV or High Occupancy Vehicle lanes that are intended for Electric Vehicles, hybrids with limited issue permission stickers, motorcycles and multiple occupant vehicles. As you can guess, eventually these lanes won’t move any quicker than other full access lanes. That’s how stupid they are. They are so poorly thought out that there are multiple scenarios that the system can be foiled.

Of course, not everyone can use these lanes which I covered in a previous article here: http://cartruthblog.blogspot.com/2016/07/abolish-wasteful-and-unfair-hov-lanes.html so they are patently unfair. Now in the infinite wisdom of CalTrans and others, the Fastrak was introduced in order to charge a fee for solo riders who want to use the lanes. This meant adding sensors to detect vehicles but still no cameras for reading license plates. Of course cameras came next along with a revised Fastrak that has a switch to indicate how many passengers are in the vehicle. Now imagine the infrastructure needed to support all this.

The cameras cannot see occupants such as children behind the front seats, especially in vehicles with tinted or covered windows. Lighting and windshield angles with reflections can come into play as well. Will cameras with those abilities come next? How will they be monitored? There’s talk that sensors will be incorporated to somehow detect how many occupants are really in the vehicles. When will this madness ever stop? Until then the poorly conceived notion of the HOV lane, the Fastrak and lanes monitored with license readers can be cheated in multiple scenarios.

Finally, how silly to have to manipulate a essentially a cell phone sized object to adjust for the number of occupants, or keeping it covered in its ESD bag so the sensors can't pick it up. And keeping it glued or velcro'd on our dashboard? That's absurd. Here's another problem about the Fastrak system. A couple lines of code can easily determine the speed traveled between the sensors. And finally, if tolls must be collected, it should be in every lane, the same amount, for everyone and done by a bar code sticker on the windshield or by license plate.

Below are the numerous situation that can be encountered and bluffed. Lie at your own risk.

Solo or Multiple occupants, no vehicle sensor, no license plate reader. Example: San Tomas Expressway:
No Charge

Solo occupant, vehicle sensors but no license plate reader. Example, 680 Southbound, Sunol to San Jose
1. No FasTrak – No Charge
2. FasTrak covered – No Charge
3. FastTrak displayed – disputes charged claiming passenger(s) in vehicle – Account Credited

Solo driver on a license reader equipped road. Example:  580 Eastbound, Pleasanton to Livermore
4. FaskTrak displayed, disputes charge claiming passenger(s) in vehicle - Account Credited
5. FasTrak covered, disputes charge claiming passenger(s) in vehicle – Account Credited

Solo driver with FasTrak Flex on a license reader equipped road. Example: 580 Eastbound, Pleasanton to Livermore
6. FastTrak Flex set to 2-4 people – No charge
7. FastTrak Flex set to 1 person - disputes charge claiming passengers in vehicle – Account Credited
8. FastTrak Flex covered – charged, dispute charge claiming passengers in vehicle – Account Credited

Multiple Occupants with vehicle sensors, no license reader:
9. No FasTrak – No Charge
10. FasTrak covered – No Charge
11. FasTrak displayed – charge is invalid, disputes charge claiming passenger(s) in vehicle - Account Credited

Multiple Occupants with FasTrak and license reader equipped road:
12. No FasTrak – dispute charge claiming passenger(s) in vehicle  – No Charge
13. FasTrak covered – dispute charge claiming passenger(s) in vehicle - No Charge
14. FasTrak displayed – dispute charge claiming passenger(s) in vehicle – No Charge

Multiple Occupants with FasTrak Flex and license reader equipped road:
15. FastTrak Flex set to correct setting – No Charge
16. FasTrak Flex set to incorrect setting – dispute charge claiming 3 passengers in vehicle – No Charge
17. FasTrak covered – dispute charge claiming passenger(s) in vehicle – No Charge

It’s been said, and a Google search indicates that an HOV lane violation is not a moving violation and doesn’t add points on a license in California. They key is to contest the ticket in court, if the officer isn’t there to testify, conventional wisdom says to plead not guilty and no witness present means the ticket will be tossed. If the officer is present, I would ask for forgiveness and a reduced fine. It’s a travesty that a texting ticket is less than a carpool violation ticket. The travesty of the existence HOV lanes and the Fastrak system also needs to be fixed. As in abolished.

Do you really think putting more vehicles in fewer lanes is a good idea? Don't be absurd.

Abolish wasteful and unfair HOV Lanes and FasTrak restrictions

HOV lanes waste gasoline and are bad for the environment. How often have you sat idling, virtually motionless when an occasional vehicle drives by? How about watching the traffic reports on the news and seeing the HOV lanes severely underutilized while hundreds or thousands of cars sit idle or barely moving? Imagine the wasted fuel and exhaust emissions as tens or hundreds of thousands of
vehicles sitting twice a day for hours while an adjacent lane is open. Let’s toss in the ill-conceived notion of FasTrak access while we’re at it.

Wasting gas and contributing to polluting the environment are the major drawbacks of HOV lanes. Discriminatory access is patently unfair. Productivity delays and wear and tear are secondary. The intent of the expressway system is to allow as much traffic as possible to move efficiently and safely. That’s it, no other function or purpose. People will carpool if possible. They already use mass transit when they can. The cost of living is high, gas prices are never satisfactory, automobiles are expensive and people will carpool with the incentive of reducing costs. Penalizing other drivers by forcing them into less lanes while one lane is underutilized is nearly criminal in its stupidity, discrimination and environmental impact.

The original intent of the carpool lanes is to encourage or reward people who share rides going to work. Let's look at who it penalizes:

1. Company employees who don't have co-workers living near each other.
2. People whose schedules require them to do things outside of the normal commute to work and home. This could include children, classes, gym, errands, appointments, etc.
3. Any employee whose job requires travel such as sales, repair, delivery, services, either regularly or sporadically.
4. Flex-hour" employees who drive before 9am or after 3pm.
5. Any person who is off work during the week and must plan on traffic back-ups during the week while attending to personal business.
6. Those that cannot afford, need or can drive a qualified hybrid or electric vehicle. How many minivans and pick-up trucks qualify for carpool lanes? Should they qualify? We’ll address that too.

Now let's look what at the NEGATIVE aspects of more cars forced into LESS lanes
means:

1. Long back-ups consume more gas. Far more than the gas saved by the carpools.
2. Carpool lanes contribute to congestion. Every commuter on 280, 680, 237, 85, San Tomas, etc. recognizes this every weekday. They force traffic into less available lanes. One estimate is twenty percent greater congestion: www.thenewspaper.com/news/10/1047.asp
3.  Longer back-ups cause more pollution. These are environmental disasters in every area where thousands of cars idle while there are under-utilized lanes that would allow the average speed of all traffic to increase significantly.
4. Delays, pollution and consuming more gas negatively affect the economy. The money spent could be channeled elsewhere.
5. Large speed differentials in two different lanes is dangerous due to visual perception, merging, etc.

And of course the failed logic of both carpool and FasTrak lanes:

1. FasTrak lanes are not enforceable. Many don’t have cameras to count occupants and how will it count rear seat occupants anyway. FasTrak lanes with license plate cameras cannot know how many occupants a registered FasTrak owner has in the vehicle, penalizing the FasTrak owner if not solo when in a monitored lane. It’s ridiculous in the sheer stupidity.
2. Enforcement is unrealistic. Wasting police time and slowing traffic spotting solo drivers only to find out there is a small child or infant obscured by legally tinted windows. Cameras won’t work for the same reason.
3. Why do more fuel efficient vehicles get to travel more efficiently when less efficient vehicles are stuck in inefficient back-ups?
4. Why do two people in a 15mpg truck have HOV access instead of an over 40mpg diesel (Update: actually 50mpg until the upcoming VW recall) in the regular lanes? Why are 40mpg gas/diesel vehicles not allowed when a hybrid SUV is allowed, possibly with a solo occupant is getting 28mpg and likely far less.
5. If the HOV lanes are fully utilized, then all the lanes are at capacity so what difference does it make that there is a restricted one?
6. And finally, why do archaic toll booths even continue to exist? To waste more fuel due to congestion?

The current and proposed incentives are also illogical. Motorcyclists, electric vehicle and (most) hybrid owners don’t need discounts, they are already saving fuel! Taxing gasoline isn’t a solution because hybrids and electric vehicles don’t consume as much gas but they still contribute to highway wear. The ride-sharing public? They already recognized savings and discounts by their act alone.
There is a real hypocrisy with hybrid SUVs and luxury sedans that are efficient, but do not "save" fuel consumption versus a less powerful or smaller sized vehicle. In other words, a larger, heavier or more powerful hybrid whose fuel efficiency is the same as a non-hybrid still receives a carpool sticker. This makes no sense.

If revenue must be realized by vehicles on the road then the best method is a reader system like the Washington State “Good To Go!” program. Their solution is a coded decal on the windshield or motorcycle headlight or a license plate mounted unit and supplemented by license plate readers for those who don’t have an account. Every vehicle on the road then accounts for its presence. Those who do not have an online account or credit card on file will simply be mailed a monthly bill. But NO method should ever be used to restrict lane access.

The bottom line is carpool lanes need to be abolished. All lawful drivers have the right to use all the lanes. If revenue must be raised, the only fair, logical, environmentally friendly and enforceable method to collect funds is license plate cameras or coded windshield decal headers regardless of the vehicle type of number of occupants. Its time our local and state representatives as well as CalTrans wake up and do what is right for commuters and the environment. Until then, the rest of us should drive in whatever lane is available and most efficient.

California Leaders Pollute California

Mr. Gary Richards AKA Mr. Roadshow of the San Jose Mercury News recently reported that the new southbound 680 express lanes have added on average a minute to the commute time. The study cited was done by the Alameda County Transportation Agency.

What that means is the results of the new lanes are an absolute and total failure contributing MORE pollution from idling vehicles than before. I would also like to know just how bad the spikes are and how badly the statistics show the real story every day.

ALSO, on southbound 680 AFTER the express lanes end during the evening rush hour, traffic slows down while there is a very large median area next to the center divider that could easily accommodate another lane. Why it hasn’t been made into a useful lane is beyond me.

Finally northbound 680 during the late afternoon and evening looks horrible as well, observed during late afternoon drives southbound.

Why California continues to mandate harmful and/or useless fuel additives, lower octane rating for premium gas, draconian restrictions for vehicle modification despite extra clean burning engines while cramming as much traffic as possible into as few lanes as possible is absolutely stupid beyond all measure and environmentally criminal. Surely there are representatives trying to stop this?

I strongly urge you to contact your government representatives and demand cleaner air and less fuel consumption by banning carpool and express lanes with use requirements.

Mr. Roadshow article: http://www.mercurynews.com/mr-roadshow/ci_17438165?nclick_check=1

Find and contact your state representative: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/defaulttext.asp

Previous article urging a ban on carpool lanes from 3/2009: http://www.examiner.com/autos-in-san-jose/ban-carpool-lanes