Let's liberate the diamond lane

By James Aaron Cooke, Contributing Editor -- Logistics Management, 11/1/2005

Traffic was snarled on Route 84 southbound to Hartford, Conn., the other day, but my way was free and clear in the diamond-marked high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lane.

Whenever there's at least one other passenger in my car, I take advantage of the HOV lane. Every time I do, the view across the divider that separates it from the rest of the road looks the same: Trucks and cars, packed tightly into three congested lanes, crawl along beside me as I race ahead with no one to impede my progress.

For the longest time, I've wondered why state transportation officials refuse to accept the obvious: HOV lanes don't work. Evidently, that fact did dawn on some transportation officials last summer in the state of Washington, where they converted a little-used car-pool lane to general use on Interstate 5, an artery that runs into Portland, Ore.

Let's hope that Washington launches a trend and that other states follow suit and abandon the HOV lane, which I believe is a misguided and outdated social-engineering policy. Why outdated? As diesel and gas prices remain high, leaving trucks stuck in traffic when there's underutilized pavement available just a few yards away represents a federally mandated waste of precious energy.

That may sound trivial to some, but it's not. The fuel costs related to traffic congestion are huge: The Texas Transportation Institute's "2005 Urban Mobility Study" estimated that car and truck engines idling in traffic jams wasted 2.3 billion gallons of fuel in 2003. And that number has most likely risen since then.

For shippers with lean supply chains, there's nothing more important than working with motor carriers that keep their appointments and maintain delivery schedules. But as the nation's highways have grown more crowded and gridlock has spread from large urban centers to smaller cities, truckers are finding it increasingly difficult to make pickups and deliveries on time. According to the study's authors, the number of urban areas that experienced more than 20 hours of highway-travel delays per year grew from just five in 1982 to 51 in 2003. For rush-hour travelers, the average annual delay grew from 16 hours in 1982 to 47 hours in 2003.

We can't afford the luxury of ineffective transportation policies in an era when gasoline and diesel prices approach $3 a gallon. Although city planners may see wisdom in getting more folks to form car pools and ride together to work, the truth is that most people's lives are too complicated to coordinate schedules and share rides. It's an exercise in futility to try to change commuters' behavior.

Plus there's the simple issue of fairness. Truckers and motorists alike contribute to highway taxes, which should be used for everyone's benefit. Given that the nation's transportation infrastructure is vital to commerce and our economic wellbeing, the federal government should not be constructing highway lanes, then discriminating and denying access to them. When the government expands a road network, it should improve mobility for all highway users.

At this writing, 19 states have HOV lanes. That policy must end. Shippers in those states need to contact transportation officials and let them know that this country can no longer afford the cost of failed social experiments when supply chain efficiency is at stake.