HOV lane enforcement underway in Las Vegas
Nevada Highway Patrol troopers began issuing tickets Thursday to motorists driving in high occupancy vehicle lanes in Las Vegas who were not carpooling.
NHP planned to saturate the carpool lanes, which stretch from Silverado Ranch Boulevard and Interstate 15 in the south valley to Elkhorn Road and U.S. Highway 95 in the north, as enforcement kicked off Thursday morning.
The number of tickets issued Thursday was not available, however.
The Nevada Department of Transportation provided NHP with $10,000 to go toward trooper overtime to coincide with the concentrated enforcement.
With the new HOV lane system comes new regulations.
The U.S. 95 HOV lanes that opened in 2007 were enforced only during peak traffic hours Monday through Friday. The newly instituted laws will be enforced 24/7.
Here are the new HOV lane regulations:
Allowed
-Vehicles with two or more occupants.
-Motorcycles.
-Emergency and law enforcement vehicles with one occupant, including with lights off.
Not allowed
-Vehicles with one occupant.
-Pets as passengers.
-Vehicles that don’t enter or exit the carpool lane at one of the broken line enter/exit points.
-Electric cars, unless with two occupants, as per Nevada law.
-Trucks with more than two axles, even with two occupants.
Drivers pulled over for violating any of the carpool regulations will face a $250 fine. Those are pulled over in an HOV lane, NHP advises to safely merge to the right, until they reach the shoulder of the road.
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.
