I’m lucky that part of my job is remote, and I don’t have a daily commute into Vancouver. My luck runs out if I need to go to Richmond any time in the late afternoon, which tends to happen frequently.
I don’t mind driving, as a matter of fact I very much enjoy driving. Kelowna? A breeze. Seattle? Be there in a couple hours. Portland? An extra cup of tea and I’m on my way.
But Richmond at 4:30 p.m.? Forget it. I like driving, not sitting. The tunnel is a parking lot once the counter-flow lane kicks in. Hope there’s some good music on the radio, I’m going to be there for a while.
So as I sit in traffic, I watch longingly as car after car whizzes past in the HOV lane. Busses? Of course. Cars with two people? Good for you. But increasingly, I am seeing more and more individuals taking the HOV lane.
Now, maybe there was a car seat in the back with a child along for the ride. That qualifies, but there were a few work trucks with just the driver. Unless your colleague is asleep in the back, I’m not sure you are playing by the HOV rules.
Some days the HOV lane is backed up as far as the regular traffic. Kind of defeats the purpose. As I watched, I saw more and more individuals in amongst the high occupancy folks.
What throws me a bit is the electric vehicles, which have the coveted ‘HOV OK’ sticker on the back. I could see how it was an incentive initially to get an EV, but at this point, there’s so many of them they aren’t that unique any longer, so the lane gets clogged up. Not to mention the fact that an electric vehicle stuck in traffic isn’t even using electricity, where other cars are still running.
The fine for single occupancy in the HOV lane is pretty steep - $109. But maybe it’s worth the risk, because I haven’t seen anyone enforcing the rule in a long time, at least on my afternoon travels. Guess if I’m waiting it’s my own fault for following the rules.
I was under the impression HOV stood for high occupancy vehicles. Apparently I was wrong. A better description might be how many other vehicles.
Brad Sherwin, MBA is a long-time resident of South Delta, and has over 30 years’ experience in marketing, public relations and business strategy. He teaches post-secondary marketing, coaches hockey goalies and is past president of Deltassist.
