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Getting Rid of Carpool Lanes Could Double Travel Times (sciencemag.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Science Magazine: Eliminating carpool lanes could almost double drivers' traveling times, according to a new study. The findings come thanks to an unusual decision made by the government of Jakarta last year. Following allegations that drugged babies from poor households were being used as "jockeys," or passengers for hire, Indonesian lawmakers repealed the so-called three-in-one restriction. The law had required cars driving on the business district's main roads to carry at least three passengers during rush hours. To determine the impact on the city's drivers, Benjamin Olken, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and colleagues queried Google Maps for real-time driving-speed data before and after the new policy went into effect. Following the policy lift, travel delays, defined as the time it takes to travel 1 kilometer, increased by 46% in the morning and almost 90% in the evening, the team reports today in Science. But the most startling result is that phasing out the three-in-one policy led to worse traffic during times of the day and on roads where there had never been restrictions in place, Olken says. One possible explanation, he says, is that the three-in-one restriction led fewer people to drive into the city. "Maybe they carpooled, took public transit, or worked from home."
That was just the Mercer Island private lane anyway. The Seattle to Eastside commute volume reversed decades ago. But the DOT never had the guts to reverse the lane to match actual use.
Have gnu, will travel.
Well, as a dirt poor these last few years motorcyclist who has other dirt poor motorcyclists as friends, I can say categorically that daily commuters on motorcycles in the greater Seattle area do that because its cheaper or gets them to work faster than a car. I work from home just now for a very underfunded startup, but previously I commuted year round (save a few snow days that happen here) by motorcycle. If I had mod points I'd mod you up as humorous. The reason motorcycle use the HOV lanes is justified by their very good gas mileage, safety from fewer vehicles in the lane, and air-cooled motorcycles break down in prolonged stop and go traffic.
Also car drivers need to open their eyes and see motorcyclists. The vast majority of motorcycle accidents are cars hitting a motorcycle. It is as if people would not see a large crib with lights on all the time in the road. Or a pallet of cinder blocks with taillights and headlight(s) on all the time. Car drivers fail to drive defensively. And yes some small number of motorcyclists have apparent death wishes. But not as many as cars driving in and out of traffic at rush hour. I have my little french fry transponder but I'm on my third. heat and 60MPH peel them off the plastic headlight cover. So charging a motorcycle will not go over well with me.
- Tjp
I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!
So if you remove the 3-passenger requirement, capacity will not change but usage will increase, so of course it will slow down. If you change a carpool lane into a regular lane, capacity will increase, and depending on how much usage increases traffic can speed up or slow down.
Read the summary again, it's not a carpool lane, it's ALL traffic.
Whoever wrote the article needs a kick in the crotch.
While I agree in general it's hard to put the blame solely at drivers inability to "see a pallet of cinderblocks".
Firstly those pallets are much larger than any motorcycle.
Secondly motorcycles fit in blind spots even with properly adjusted mirrors where small cars would not.
From a behavioral side:
I have only once seen a motorbike move with traffic rather than overtake, move faster, or (if the traffic is slow) lanesplit. And that one motorbike was a Harley too big to lanesplit. This is an expectational piece. When I drive I generally keep a view out and know the relative positions of cars around me, but baring a few idiot car drivers (okay a lot of idiot car drivers) motorcyclists are somewhat of a wildcard, they suddenly appear and then disappear soon after.
I can't blame them really, I'd be doing the same thing if I were small enough to fit in between traffic, but in general even the well behaved ones are hard to predict, and the vast majority of accidents involving cars and motorbikes involve merging into them due to the above issues. That is followed not too closely by being rear-ended by them (i.e. cutting them off because they have a far worse stopping ability.)
getting rid of law enforcement could double crime. again, can we say "duh".