Pulled over today: weird experience

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The point of HOV should be to get more throughput of people who need to get through a congested corridor.

In MD, you can use the HOV lanes with one person if you have an electric car. We have a special sticker on the back of our Chevy Volt issued by MD DMV that attests to this.

Yet another example of how HOV isn't just about getting commuters to carpool.

So they are trying to incentivize choices that have better outcomes/lesser impacts. Though it is worth pointing out VA just decided this was bad policy and ended it.

[Anonymous]

My take away from this pointless rant.

You got pulled over because the officer could not see your infants in the back seat.

When you pointed out the babies, the officer did not issue a citation.

Is that about right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He couldn't see your two 6 month olds. I think it is great he pulled you over since it means they are actually checking.

Relax.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Fair enough but part of that shouldn't be rewarding their choice with a faster commute on lanes that would be better used by people who have to commute through a corridor. Jobs are concentrated in dense areas - schools tend to be concentrated in neighborhoods. I hadn't thought of this before but I bet there are parents putting their kids in downtown daycares to take advantage of HOV rules - if so I do think that undermines the purpose of the lanes and is a legal form of cheating.

I heard some families are having extra kids just so they can use the HOV lanes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How about non HOV world parent makes choice to have kids in neighborhood schools that don't involve them spending hours in the car every day? That would be good for kids and good congestion.

Seriously why do kids need to be commuting on 270?

The point of HOV should be to get more throughput of people who need to get through a congested corridor. It is hard for me to rationalize why kids need to get through that congested corridor but I live in DC purposefully so my kids are within walking distance of our home. But in fact it is bad policy to encourage parents to make different choices so I'm really not sure it is in the "spirit" of the law to have parents zipping around in HOV lanes with kids who really don't need to be going to school downtown - most jobs are downtown and most daycares and schools are not.

How about we let parents decide which works better for them, when the choices are (a) a daycare close to home but far from the job (b) a daycare far from home but close to the job? In the ideal world, everybody would also have a choice (c) home, daycare, and job all close together. But we are not in the ideal world, yet.

Fair enough but part of that shouldn't be rewarding their choice with a faster commute on lanes that would be better used by people who have to commute through a corridor. Jobs are concentrated in dense areas - schools tend to be concentrated in neighborhoods. I hadn't thought of this before but I bet there are parents putting their kids in downtown daycares to take advantage of HOV rules - if so I do think that undermines the purpose of the lanes and is a legal form of cheating.

There are absolutely are. Just like there are people who slug to take advantage of HOV rules or who drive electric cars or who carpool with their neighbors. Lots of people do things to legally take advantage of benefits offered to them.

And once again, if that reduces the time the parent is on the road by 15-30 minutes it is actually a net good.

If you are the PP going on about how everyone can choose a daycare. There are a lot of options but they are hard to get into. If you only get into two and one is next to your house and has 3 safety violations and one is close to the city and has a much better reputation you think the parent should put their child in the close bad one just to stay off the road? Or should we help parents make good chocies for their children without adding a population of people to the rush hour for two hours a pop?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How about non HOV world parent makes choice to have kids in neighborhood schools that don't involve them spending hours in the car every day? That would be good for kids and good congestion.

Seriously why do kids need to be commuting on 270?

The point of HOV should be to get more throughput of people who need to get through a congested corridor. It is hard for me to rationalize why kids need to get through that congested corridor but I live in DC purposefully so my kids are within walking distance of our home. But in fact it is bad policy to encourage parents to make different choices so I'm really not sure it is in the "spirit" of the law to have parents zipping around in HOV lanes with kids who really don't need to be going to school downtown - most jobs are downtown and most daycares and schools are not.

How about we let parents decide which works better for them, when the choices are (a) a daycare close to home but far from the job (b) a daycare far from home but close to the job? In the ideal world, everybody would also have a choice (c) home, daycare, and job all close together. But we are not in the ideal world, yet.

Fair enough but part of that shouldn't be rewarding their choice with a faster commute on lanes that would be better used by people who have to commute through a corridor. Jobs are concentrated in dense areas - schools tend to be concentrated in neighborhoods. I hadn't thought of this before but I bet there are parents putting their kids in downtown daycares to take advantage of HOV rules - if so I do think that undermines the purpose of the lanes and is a legal form of cheating.

No, dummy. You put your kids in a downtown daycare to shorten the commute you have to work from when you drop them off and need to pick them up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My take away from this pointless rant.

You got pulled over because the officer could not see your infants in the back seat.

When you pointed out the babies, the officer did not issue a citation.

Is that about right?

Almost right. You didn't include the part where the cop made up some BS spirit of the HOV hoodoo to safe face, but which only made him look worse than if he'd said "oops, didn't see the little ones back there. You'll probably get pulled over for this again because we're thorough but you're doing nothing wrong. Have a nice day."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My take away from this pointless rant.

You got pulled over because the officer could not see your infants in the back seat.

When you pointed out the babies, the officer did not issue a citation.

Is that about right?

Ahhhh.... another voice of reason. And you're spot-on; it IS that simple

[Anonymous]

BS story. Never happened. OP, enjoy your walkout day, go back to school tomorrow!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gotta tell you, OP - I think the true spirit of the HOV lane is for multiple potential DRIVERS to be in one vehicle to cut down on congestion ... plus, he didn't make a "mistake," he couldn't see your infants. I can guarantee he wasn't embarrassed - he was probably biting his tongue so he wouldn't say what I just wrote.

You are owed nothing.

Completely agree with this. I don’t understand why you think you should be in that one. You weren’t saving any traffic by carpoolin with a tone. You just sound like an entitled jerk who was inconvenienced.

[Anonymous]

I say this as a South Asian woman born in America. My demographic (South Asian women raised in America) are an extremely entitled group of people. OP is a great example of this.

[Anonymous]

This is like if a cop pulled you over for suspected drunk driving, gave you tests and realized you weren’tdrunk, but still put a warning in the system to save face. It’s illegal.

And most jurisdictions use digital warnings tied to your license (if human related) or license plate (if car related) so they are quickly accessed by others. There are no more paper warning tickets.

What’s going to happen now if down the road you get on an hov restricted road by accident and pulled over? That cop will see you’ve been warned and will issue a ticket and if you’re an unlucky poc, probably find a reason to search your car and add more charges/tickets.

I’d go to this jurisdiction and speak with someone. They can quickly find who pulled you over.

[Anonymous]

The comment about the spirit of the rule is weird, but oh well, shake it off and move on.
As far as I know, the rule is 3 people regardless of age.
I like to joke that I’ll believe life begins at conception when I am pregnant and it counts as two people in the HOV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is like if a cop pulled you over for suspected drunk driving, gave you tests and realized you weren’tdrunk, but still put a warning in the system to save face. It’s illegal.

And most jurisdictions use digital warnings tied to your license (if human related) or license plate (if car related) so they are quickly accessed by others. There are no more paper warning tickets.

What’s going to happen now if down the road you get on an hov restricted road by accident and pulled over? That cop will see you’ve been warned and will issue a ticket and if you’re an unlucky poc, probably find a reason to search your car and add more charges/tickets.

I’d go to this jurisdiction and speak with someone. They can quickly find who pulled you over.

You are wrong, wrong and wrong.

[Anonymous]

I ride in the HOV with my dog and never had a cop stop me for it. Dogs are people too.