Do you find HOV/HOT lanes useful in Minneapolis (how much, legally)

[kyle242]

Just asking for opinion of Midwesterns from the second largest city in the Midwest after Chicago which does not have them.

[Bound4AZ]

On one hand, I suppose it's nice to have the option of a faster moving lane if you're in a hurry. On the other hand, one has to wonder how much faster the other lanes would be moving if the HOV lane were open to everyone. And if you're alone in the car, you can only legally use the HOV lane if you've gone through the steps to get a transponder for your car, and loaded it up with money.

Which brings us to the topic of enforcement...

Enforcing the HOV lane seems to be difficult. State troopers almost always have better things to do than sit on the shoulder waiting for an offending vehicle to pass. Especially during inclement weather. And if you drive the same route everyday, you learn the spot(s) that they sit on the one day a week (or so) that they're forced to be on HOV duty.

For most people, HOV lanes are a non-issue. Most people stick to regular lanes.

On a side note, if we had flying cars (like we were supposed to when the year 2000 hit) then this whole thing would be a moot point.

[piper89]

To me, the HOV lane on 394 bottlenecks traffic. I suppose this could just be in theory though because of all of the left lane cruisers we have here.

[Ghengis]

if they'd open up the frozen lakes in the winter to traffic....

[Glenfield]

Usually not, but at one point I had to take the daughter to an activity south of the river right during rush hour and they saved me a lot of time then. The worst part is there are a lot of cheaters, so every so often someone would pull out from the next lane into the HOV lane and you'd have to hit the brakes. Because of that, I didn't feel comfortable going 75 in the HOV lane with traffic stopped next to me, but if I slowed down to 60 or 65 (it's a 65 mph zone) I'd have someone right on my tail.

It was fast but a little too exciting on the icy winter roads.

[Ghengis]

Originally Posted by Glenfield

Usually not, but at one point I had to take the daughter to an activity south of the river right during rush hour and they saved me a lot of time then. The worst part is there are a lot of cheaters, so every so often someone would pull out from the next lane into the HOV lane and you'd have to hit the brakes. Because of that, I didn't feel comfortable going 75 in the HOV lane with traffic stopped next to me, but if I slowed down to 60 or 65 (it's a 65 mph zone) I'd have someone right on my tail.

It was fast but a little too exciting on the icy winter roads.

can appreciate this. We were in a fast-moving, busy HOV lane in Boston when up ahead we could see a tire ahead of us 100 ft or so and about 20 ft in the air. Came down on a car about 5 ahead of us and brought everything to a stop for about 2 hours. Came off an SUV heading the opposite direction.