Friday, January 20, 2006

Carpool lane (il)logic

A driver of a Prius, which gets about 50 mpg on the freeway, is allowed to drive in the carpool lane by him or herself. A driver of a regular car, which gets, say, 25 mpg, has to have at least one other person in the car besides the driver to get in the high-occupancy vehicle lane. So, wouldn't it stand to reason that a person driving a vehicle that gets, say, 13 mpg have to have at least four people total to drive in the HOV lane?

2 comments:

English Professor said...

Sure, in one way, but obviously this is a carrot to get more people to drive fuel-efficient cars.

I loved the trivia about Wrigley Field--can't wait to tell my Chicago family.

Anonymous said...

Consider too the environmental impact of building new cars. Maybe my 1989 station wagon should get an additional credit for its 25 MPG because it is still running instead of having built two or three new cars to replace it every so many years. ;)

Carpools are a tool to reduce the number of cars on the road. Hybrids get plenty of other incentives, and consider that a 40MPG non-hybrid that cost $13k in resources, with three passengers, is pulling down 120PMPG . . . versus a $22k Prius, yielding, with anm aggressive driver, a mere 40PMPG . . .

Slippery slopes. Not to say hybrids aren't cool.

-d