End of the Road for Fast Lane [PHIL-OSOPHY]

At a recent Local Government Advisory Commission meeting, Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack spelled out that those HOV lanes are a misadventure for group vehicle commuters. To put it bluntly, the HOV lanes aren't working today the way they were intended to work when they were first introduced 30 years ago.

HOV stands for "high-occupancy vehicle." It's a bad joke, though, when 80 to 90 percent of the vehicles in HOV lanes are solo drivers. That's the appalling official number from the Commonwealth. Mum's the word, but another shameful reality is there's a closed Twitter group for people who use the carpool lane and tweet each other messages that give the green light when there are no troopers posted. They send messages like, "No cops on, okay for single cars." In the meantime, we're stuck in a bumper-to-bumper crawl along the South East Expressway, or I-93 southbound between Mystic Valley Parkway and the Fellsway in Medford.

The other side of this problem is there are only so many troopers out there during rush hour. If they're assigned to monitor the HOV lanes, they aren't available for the numerous accidents and breakdowns, and we know which one takes priority. So, if single drivers in HOV carpool lanes frustrate you, I'm asking you to participate here in a brief, online community service that will help better address this problem. Tell me what you think.

Phil Paleologos is the host of the Phil Paleologos Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Contact him at phil@wbsm.com and ffollow him on Twitter @PhilPaleologos. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.