Every time I drive on the freeway I get angry. Not about the other drivers on the road, most of them are just in the same position as me. I get upset about the bureaucracy that decided carpool lanes were a good idea.

It’s my strong opinion that carpool lanes are a completely unnecessary evil. They make far more things worse than better. I came up with a short list today of why carpool lanes should be abandoned.

1. We all pay taxes, we all should be able to use all the road. Every driver pays the same gasoline taxes that supposedly pay for our freeways, how can it be fair to favor a privileged few by giving them their very own lane?
2. Cars pollute more when sitting in gridlock. While carpool lanes were supposed to reward people with the foresight to try and help the environment, the probably cause more pollution by forcing more people to sit in polluting cars in non-moving traffic.
3. Stop and go traffic is much more dangerous than smoothly flowing traffic. That just kind of makes sense. When more cars are jammed into fewer lanes it gets more hazardous.
4. More merging cars. People coming onto the freeway who are carpooling furiously try and get over into the faster carpool lanes, unabashedly cutting anyone off. This furious left-merging could probably be avoided if all traffic was moving relatively the same and there was no incentive to change lanes so quickly. Also, how can changing lanes from almost stand-still traffic into a lane where cars are zooming by be very safe?
5. Road rage. It’s purely speculation, but maybe people wouldn’t get so angry when they drive if traffic was a bit lighter when everyone is truly in the same position in and everyone is moving along at a slightly faster pace.

My last point isn’t really a point, but more of a wondering about the law. Why is it that people driving around others who couldn’t possibly have a driver’s license, and thus be in a car taking up space on the road, get to use the carpool lane? Mothers driving around babies doesn’t really seem to me to be in line with the initial aim of giving people an incentive to share rides.

Another final observation. There wouldn’t be guys like me on the road writing down lists on a piece of paper while we are driving and taking snapshots with our phones if every driver was treated equally on the roads.