Creative driving 201

I'm not a fan of the Dallas area managed HOV lanes and I've blogged such before. Difficult to get on coming north from Dallas itself and nigh impossible to get out of in either direction. Unless of course you're doing a bit of creative driving.

Almost as soon as the lane was opened, the plastic barricades were disappearing. Not by the ones and twos but by the dozen, displaced by cars. Going in? Coming out? Had my answer on Tuesday.

Going south, the first part of the HOV is 4 or 5 miles in length, if that. But no sooner had it started than traffic ground to stop and go, maybe 20 mph. As is usually the case, there was no sign of accident or construction. It just slowed. And then slowed some more. I flipped the radio to a local channel (the XM version of traffic and weather is, I have found, useless and out of time) and there was nothing being reported. I decided to stick with my lane and putter along, a move which in this case, paid off in a mile when we were back up to speed.

In the meantime, I amused myself with my fellow drivers' creative driving. I say 201, because that's the numbering sequence for sophomore level courses and this was sophomore level driving.

Remember those gaps in the barricades? Well, if you're practically at a stop and no one is coming up behind you in the HOV, it doesn't take a great length to get your car in the designated lane, whether you deserve to be or not. Unless there was someone hiding in the back seat, there was some serious violating going on. These impatient people were endangering us all by now diving into a lane they either had eschewed earlier or did not have a right to be in in any case.

Just another reason not to like it!