High-occupancy vehicle lane

rdf:langString High-occupancy vehicle lane

rdf:langString A high-occupancy vehicle lane (also known as an HOV lane, carpool lane, diamond lane, 2+ lane, and transit lane or T2 or T3 lanes) is a restricted traffic lane reserved for the exclusive use of vehicles with a driver and one or more passengers, including carpools, vanpools, and transit buses. These restrictions may be only imposed during peak travel times or may apply at all times. According to the criteria used there are different types of lanes: temporary or permanent with concrete barriers; two-directional or reversible; and exclusive, concurrent or contraflow lanes working in peak periods. The normal minimum occupancy level is 2 or 3 occupants. Many jurisdictions exempt other vehicles, including motorcycles, charter buses, emergency and law enforcement vehicles, low-emission and other green vehicles, and/or single-occupancy vehicles paying a toll. HOV lanes are normally introduced to increase average vehicle occupancy and persons traveling with the goal of reducing traffic congestion and air pollution, although their effectiveness is questionable. Regional and corporate-sponsored vanpools, carpools, and rideshare communities give commuters a way to increase occupancy. For places without such services, online rideshare communities can serve a similar purpose. Slugging lines are common in some places, where solo drivers pick up a passenger to share the ride and allow them to use the HOV lane. Since HOV lanes are unpopular, since they require drivers to find others to carpool with, high-occupancy toll lanes (HOT lanes) have been introduced in the United States and Canada. These lanes do allow solo driver vehicles, but require a fee. It turns out people are more willing to pay a fee than to accommodate other travelers and their schedules. Another way of phrasing this is to define HOT lanes as HOV lanes that allow vehicles that don't meet occupancy requirements to pay a toll to use the lane. In practice, however, they're considered more as toll lanes that just so happen to be free of charge in those (relatively infrequent) cases where you aren't alone in your car. This way, a chief purpose of the HOV lane - to reduce the number of cars on the road by making more people on average ride one car - has been supplanted by merely changing solo riders more money.