LETTER: NDOT might want to look at how Phoenix uses HOV lanes
The high occupancy vehicle lane is largely empty on Interstate 15 southbound near the East Flamingo Road exit, June 20, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Benjamin Hager/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @benjaminhphoto
Updated January 23, 2020 - 9:15 pm
I recently returned from a road trip to Phoenix. I noted that Phoenix has HOV lanes on its freeways, and that a sign on a current road project there indicated federal funding. Unlike Las Vegas, however, the Phoenix HOV lanes are active only between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Further, the HOV lane is separated by only a single sold white line, allowing exit or entrance to the lane from anywhere.
Obviously the Las Vegas HOV rules are not federally imposed, as we have been led to believe, or Phoenix would have to abide by them also. While I still believe HOV lanes are mostly wasted real estate, at least Phoenix has applied common sense to their forced existence.
