Senseless HOV bill | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

I am disappointed that the Utah Senate approved HB23, High Occupancy Vehicle Lane Amendments. This bill limits the number of clean-fuel vehicles allowed in carpool lanes.

The reasoning of some legislators was that allowing hybrid or electric vehicles in the high-occupancy vehicle lanes did not encourage "high occupancy," and that the money earned by selling HOV passes to single-occupant drivers was needed to build more roads.

This does not make sense. The intent of an HOV lane is to reduce the amount of fuel used by drivers and to reduce air pollution emissions from automobiles — not to make money; particularly not to make money to build more roads!

Selling passes for single-occupancy drivers certainly does not encourage high occupancy. Too many hybrid and electrical vehicles in the HOV lanes would be a wonderful "problem" to have. We would have cleaner air and would be reducing our foreign trade deficit.

Our legislators should vote no on this bill; if they don't, the governor should veto it.

Nicola Nelson

North Salt Lake