Not every Las Vegan can carpool to work in the empty HOV lanes
The Sunday commentary by Tony Illia of the Nevada Department of Transportation extols all the wonderful advantages of carpooling. This is just another example of government meddling in our lives.
I’m so happy that Mr. Illia has the opportunity to ride with his friends and chat his way to work. But how is it fair that I have to pay for his HOV lanes with my taxes while I’m unable to share in his joy? Like many workers in this town, I don’t have the luxury of a set work schedule. I am an “on-call” employee, which makes it impossible to coordinate with another such worker to ride share. I’m sure that all of the NDOT employees have nice set schedules and are off on every holiday known to man, but out here in the real world, that’s not how it works.
To be fair, permits should be issued to allow the use of tax-funded HOV lanes by workers who can document their inability to carpool due to work schedule.
Why do officials at this agency have the power to determine who gets to use our HOV lanes anyway? How about we take the power away from them and allow the taxpayers to decide what’s fair?
