Dipping our toes into the car pool

We suburbanites may very well need to be pushed into the deep end of car pools and the car-pool lanes proposed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority.

Dedicated car-pool lanes will reduce air pollution, gas consumption and potentially some gridlock if we truly embrace them and there are fewer cars on the tollway. Blagojevich says they could get 5,700 vehicles off our tollways. They work fairly well in other states like California and Washington.

As Daily Herald Transportation Writer Marni Pyke reported, in Washington state, the high-occupancy vehicle lanes carry more than one-third of the rush-hour drivers and nearly a fifth of the vehicles.

At a time when we all have come to realize we must sacrifice to survive and to increase our energy independence, car-pool lanes are an idea worth exploring further. So much so, that they should be examined for toll and freeways throughout the urban region and all of our elected leaders should commit to weighing their benefits and drawbacks.

Creating them and then getting all of us to commit to getting into car pools will not be easy, particularly in the suburbs. We understand that our cars give us freedom to run out for lunch during the workday or to take care of errands. We understand it's tough to find others who work and live nearby and who arrive and depart their jobs at the same times each day. In this economy, we're all working longer and more varied hours to stay ahead.

But we also have many questions and concerns about this proposal, not the least of which is that it would be run by a tollway authority with a patchy record of issuing and collecting fines correctly and is proposed by a governor who almost revels in opportunities to not cooperate with government's other branches.

Blagojevich is turning to the tollway for car-pool lanes because he doesn't need legislative approval. "If you're governor, you always have the tollway," he said Wednesday and you can almost hear his glee as you read that quote.

This program will succeed if it has a thorough airing and the oversight and support of the legislators who are supposed to represent the taxpaying, toll-paying and driving public.

We still don't know how much more drivers will have to pay to go solo. Using the car-pool lane when you're alone in California could result in a fine that starts at just over $270. We wonder what's the thinking behind charging hybrid owners more to drive solo in the lanes? Shouldn't we be rewarding those who take steps toward energy efficiency? Will multilayered electronic deductions work when we still hear reports of faulty fines nearly a year after our award-winning series uncovered the collection problems with I-Pass? If gas prices continue to drop, will we have empty car-pool lanes and an even bigger traffic mess in those other lanes that remain?

Before we dive right in, the questions need answers. The idea definitely is worth pursuing.