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!

Whew! It wasn't just me!

I can't say it was with great relief that I read the article in the Dallas Morning News today about the HOV lane mess on North Central. Instead, it was with a sense of "Huh--I didn't know they were looking for an article. I just wrote one!"

That aside (and the fact that theirs has maps and other people's opinions), I did learn a few things:

The posts are rubber and therefore, if desperate (like after the accident in the HOV lane the article mentions), can be driven over. Entering freeway traffic from a dead stop after knocking over rubber posts. Ooh. Bad.

The up-and-over-and-down to the frontage road I experienced getting off on Saturday heading south was caused by a reversible HOV lane going, then, in the other direction. Well, that warms my heart for safety and security.

Fans are few. And we all know which side I'm on.

HOV, anyone?

HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes would seem to be such a good idea. Two or more people in a car, (and there are others permitted but the sign is small and I'm trying to drive, for Pete's sake!) and off you go in your own special little lane with none of the worries of all those big trucks and three other lanes of traffic crowding in on you. In theory, it's great and I've been in some HOV lanes where one just wants to thumb one's nose at all those people driving by themselves and not going as fast as I am.

However (you knew it was coming), the new HOV lanes on Highway 75 north of Dallas leave a lot to be desired. They are "managed", which means that instead of a double white line to keep someone from sneaking in and out of the HOV, they are blocked by posts. These posts we've watched being erected for months, thinking we'd never see those darn lanes open. Now I have another definition of "managed": trapped.

I've had the opportunity to be in the HOV on a Saturday. Granted, that's not as high a traffic day as say, Friday, but it would do for the purposes of experimentation. In we popped at the first opportunity, heading south. Immediately, our speed limit was 60 while everyone over in freedom-land was doing 65. Or more. (I know, shame on them.) And there were little bits of debris in my managed lane. Where was I supposed to go to to avoid BIG debris? What if there were an accident in my managed lane? I'd be stuck.

One has to be in the HOV lanes on 75 for the long haul. No newbies to the area need apply. Once on, you have but one opportunity to get off before the end, that in north Plano. Granted, you have plenty of time to make it across the lanes to the George Bush Tollway. But if you stay (or get) on, you are whizzing through Richardson with no chance of leaving until I-635. Then it's a left exit and an up-and-over-and-down to find the rest of 75.

I was not impressed.

And it struck me, that I'd met very, very little traffic going north in the HOV. More on the shorter, Plano-Allen route, close to none on the longer stretch. So, heading north yesterday, I ascertained why.

Truth be told, I had heard on the news the day after it opened that there was a glitch in the signage. Like, it didn't exist. In order to get on the 8+-mile stretch, one has to exit right and then do a down-and-over to get to the HOV. No wonder no one--and I mean no one--was in it yesterday. I found a few in the easier to get on Plano-Allen piece. However, if you're going north and want to use the HOV and then exit to the George Bush, no dice. You're not allowed out until you are past the exit.

This is certainly a case for having to do your homework before you set out.

Like I said, I am underimpressed.

You are warned.