Car pool lane etiquette: Should I stay or should I go now?

[JonScribe]

OK. Here's the situation:

When driving with the requisite number of passengers in a car pool lane and driving at the posted speed limit, what is the proper action when another driver approaches at a faster rate of speed?

Should one:

(A) Move to the lane to your immediate right, to allow the driver behind you to pass;
(B) Accelerate to a speed that appears close to how fast the driver behind you wants to go;
(C) Wave hello to Opal;
(D) Continue driving in the same lane and same speed and allow the driver behind to pass on the right.

I hold that one can continue driving in the car pool lane at the speed limit (well, OK, 5 to 7 mph faster), and let the driver behind pass on the right. While normally passing on the right is discouraged, the lane to the right of most car pool lanes is — in fact — the passing lane.

Am I correct, or am I just asking to be shot in the head by some over-caffinated road rager?

[Pstarr]

I think it depends what type of car pool lane it is. If it is a 24/7 carpool late with limited areas for entrance/exit (like L.A.) I would say it's safer to just keep chugging along.

However, it if it is one of those 7-9AM and 5-7PM carpool lanes with no double yellow line (Bay Area), I would get out of the way.

That's all I am familiar with. I am not sure of the carpool setups in other cities.

[TexasSpur]

Different places have different types of car pool lanes. If you can move over, I think you should.

[Badtz Maru]

I don't see why a person should feel obligated to change lanes because a person comes up on them from behind real fast. My opinion is that if you want to go faster than the car in front of you, it's your responsibility to find a way around them.

With the HOV lanes where I live (Dallas), you'd be breaking the law to change lanes anyway, as we have the double-white line kind.

[TexasSpur]

I know what kind are in Dallas, on 635 and on 35. I don't think that you should break any laws to get out of the person's way, so in the Dallas case, I wouldn't move.

If the HOV lane is like a normal lane, you should treat it like the fast lane on a highway. I think it is common courtesy to move to the right and let faster cars pass you.

[kferr]

I've got a related question: Say the car pool lane is the '2 people minimum' type. Should you be allowed to use the lane if it's just you and your child in the car? This seems to me to be adhering to the letter of the law, but violating the spirit since the idea of a car pool is to get people who would normally drive seperately to share a car.

Also, did you hear the one about the dumb guy who refused to use the HOV lane because he thought it would give him AIDS?

[Badtz Maru]

Originally posted by kferr
I've got a related question: Say the car pool lane is the '2 people minimum' type. Should you be allowed to use the lane if it's just you and your child in the car? This seems to me to be adhering to the letter of the law, but violating the spirit since the idea of a car pool is to get people who would normally drive seperately to share a car.

Also, did you hear the one about the dumb guy who refused to use the HOV lane because he thought it would give him AIDS?

Heh, I drive in it when it's just me and a kid.

Heard some places allow pregnant mothers to drive in the HOV lane.

Re: dumb people and the HOV lane, I convinced a guy just down from South Dakota that the HOV lane was for hovercraft.

[flyboy]

If you're not breaking the law, and it's easy to get out of the way, I think you should move over. If I was the speeder (which I usually am), I'd want someone to do if for me, so if I'm ever being overtaken, I'll always move over. Sure, you could take the attitude that it's the speeder's responsibility to find a way around, but that's just downright rude, if you ask me. Moving over is the polite thing to do. If it's a double-white line, then they guy cruising in the HOV lane should have taken into account that he'd be stuck there, and stuck behind slow drivers, nonetheless. So I wouldn't feel guilty about holding some up in that situation.

Another thing: I don't think you should ever be pressured into going faster than you want to go. I wish people wouldn't sit there going the speed limit and not a mile per hour over, but if that's as fast as you're comfortable going, then you shouldn't feel pressured to do otherwise.

And unless your local HOV law (if there is such a thing) specifies that children don't count as passengers, then use the HOV lane if you want. As long as the lane is there, the more people using it the better, IMO. Makes for less traffic in the regular lanes.