Over two decades, the state spent $1.3 billion building high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes through Tacoma, promising carpoolers a quicker ride to work, home and the airport.
Some 18 months after completion, much of the motoring public treats those HOV lanes simply as an extra lane, risking steep fines for ignoring the law that prohibits driving solo in carpool lanes.
"Enough demand exists for peak period freeway space that the HOV lane would quickly become just another clogged lane if HOV lanes were opened to all traffic all the time," the state Department of Transportation (WSDOT) states on its regulation page.
Those clogged HOV lanes have become a daily reality during peak commute times in Pierce County. One state trooper estimated at least one third of drivers in the HOV lanes are alone in their cars. Their presence can add to the heavy burden of HOV lanes.
WSDOT says enforcement is the Washington State Patrol's (WSP) responsibility. WSP says its limited number of troopers is busy with speeders, reckless drivers, stranded motorists and roadway crime.
And the drivers? They know their odds of getting caught are low, and they always seem to have an excuse when they are.
Planning for HOV lanes
Enforcement is not part of the discussion when WSDOT is planning and building HOV lanes, the agency said in a statement to The News Tribune.
"Enforcement of HOV rules is a question for the Washington State Patrol," the agency said. "They decide what their patrols are focused on and where."
In the 1990s, the state established performance standards for HOV lanes.
"A driver in an HOV lane should be able to maintain an average speed of 45 mph or greater at least 90 percent of the time during the morning and afternoon rush hour," WSDOT states in its HOV policy. "For many years most Puget Sound HOV lanes have not met this performance standard."
HOV lanes are going to increase in Pierce County. WSDOT is working on a $202 million project that will extend a current stretch of Interstate 5 HOV lanes in Lakewood an additional four miles to Mounts Road.
Overall, WSDOT says, HOV lanes are a success. Compared to 2021, traffic delays on I-5 through Tacoma decreased by 26.5 percent during peak periods following the HOV project completion in 2022. That comes despite overall volumes increasing by 3.8 percent. Peak periods are defined as 5-10 a.m. and 2-8 p.m.
WSDOT attributes the the swifter traffic to the end of construction.
Tacoma state Rep. Jake Fey, who chairs the Transportation Committee, told The News Tribune that the HOV lanes have been successful — at least some of the time.
"There are at least times during each day where that actually does effectively move people faster," Fey said of HOV lanes. "It's just unfortunate that too many people take advantage of the system, but there's a lot of people that adhere to it."
Enforcement HOV regulations
It's a Tuesday afternoon in February.
Traffic is starting to slow in the southbound lanes of I-5 just north of where new bridges are being built over Hylebos Creek. State trooper Shannon McKenzie is parked in the median between the northbound and southbound lanes. He watches as one single-occupancy vehicle after another cruises by him in the HOV lane.
HOV lane violations are the No. 1 driver complaint for the WSP, according to McKenzie. He patrols all of Pierce County's freeways but sticks mainly to I-5 and state Route 16.
McKenzie drives a police cruiser. While it's gray and has no WSP decals, it's not undercover. The less conspicuous car allows him to get closer to cell-phone users, HOV cheaters and other violators.
On this day, he's hiding in plain sight, but people driving their cars solo in the HOV lane seem to not notice or care. He pulls out behind a Kia Optima. The driver is its sole occupant.
The Kia driver tells the trooper he needs to get home to take care of a dog. The dog owner is soon on his way with a $195 ticket.
McKenzie next pulls over a van. The driver, a Sound Transit maintenance employee, tells McKenzie he thought he could use the HOV lane because he works for the transit agency. The mistaken driver is released with a warning.
"I thought I was going to write the ticket," McKenzie said, after returning to his car. "But after speaking with him, I educated him."
McKenzie pulls back into the median and surveys the long line of vehicles driving past him. About one third contain only the driver.
"You could do this all day," he says.
Dwindling numbers
The WSP is authorized to have 683 troopers in the field. It is down 25 percent, according to Fey.
Fey just sent a bill to the governor's desk that would establish a longevity bonus for senior WSP troopers. If Gov. Jay Inslee signs it, it would offer troopers with 26 or more years of service a $15,000 bonus for every year they stay with the WSP. In 2023, a bill Fey sponsored accelerated training for trooper candidates hired from other law enforcement agencies.
Fey, who has been on a ride-along with McKenzie and witnessed multiple incidents of unsafe driving, agrees that priorities higher than HOV violators are consuming the WSP.
Another bill sitting on the governor's desk would authorize local governments to use traffic cameras where a disproportionate number of fatal and injury accidents have occurred. It also would authorize camera enforcement in construction zones.
WSDOT workers around the state have been killed and injured when hit by vehicles in construction zones. The most recent came Wednesday in Federal Way when three workers were sent to the hospital.
Fey thinks the same camera technology could be applied to HOV-lane violators but admits there are technological challenges.
"It could be a strategy to get out of that problem," Fey said. "It's probably not top of our agenda."
Who can use an HOV lane?
Whether you call them HOV, commuter or diamond lanes, only vehicles with two or more people, public transport, emergency vehicles and motorcycles can use them in Washington. WSDOT establishes the rules of HOV-lane use based on state and federal laws and direction from the state Legislature.
Express toll lanes and HOT lanes are governed by similar rules but differ from the permanently untolled HOV lanes that run through Pierce County on I-5 and state Route 16.
When HOV lanes first appeared in King County, they were limited to certain times of day. Now, HOV lanes operate 24 hours a day.
Enforcement priorities
When McKenzie first became a trooper in 2016, HOV enforcement was more of a priority.
"We'd just line up on the shoulder and point (drivers) to the side up in Seattle," he said. "We just can't do that anymore."
McKenzie and his fellow troopers do stop and enforce HOV violators but only when they aren't busy with wrecks, speeders and other dangerous drivers and situations.
"It's not something that we just go out and work, work and work, you know, to change the behavior," he said.
HOV violators might be breaking the law, but they're traveling with the flow of traffic.
"I would say most of the time, it's just the working class trying to get home at a quicker rate," he said.
The excuses they provide to troopers are varied.
"I'm just trying to get home earlier, have a doctor's appointment, my kids are in daycare ... the list goes on and on," he said.
Fines for violations
A first-offense fine for a standard HOV-lane violation is $186. A second stop within a 2-year period will get you a $336 fine.
The highest fine comes when you drive with another person in the car — a fake person. Drivers who use mannequins as their carpool buddies get an extra $200 fine. The fine is high — not because the WSP has it out for dummies — but because driving with a mannequin shows intent.
McKenzie has pulled over more than one driver with a baseball cap attached to the passenger seat headrest or atop a sleeping bag propped up in the passenger seat.
Metered ramps
Back on patrol, McKenzie pulls up next to a butterfly bush on southbound I-5, near the 54th Avenue East exit. Cars are lining up behind the metered stoplight while the diamond lane is wide open.
Soon, a Chevrolet Suburban swerves out of the backed-up lane, into the HOV lane and onto the freeway. McKenzie pulls into traffic and settles in behind the vehicle. He's not sure how many people are in the Suburban as he turns on his flashing lights.
"I wasn't paying attention," the male driver tells McKenzie. The trooper is skeptical of the excuse. The driver purposefully pulled out of the stalled lane. Traffic stops seldom go well for drivers who display intent and lie about it.
But the HOV violation is the least of the driver's worries. The man has a suspended license and expired tabs. Back in his patrol car, McKenzie pulls up the driver's record. The computer screen is soon scrolling through pages of past driving citations — 11 just from 2023. McKenzie follows the Suburban to a gas station where the driver is instructed to call a friend for a ride.
It's not uncommon, McKenzie said later, for an HOV violation to lead to other violations.
Is HOV still a good idea?
Lane cheaters use the HOV lane because it can go faster than the mainline when traffic slows. That fact, McKenzie said, proves that the lanes are doing what they were meant to do. But those same people can clog up the HOV lane, making it as slow as the rest of the freeway.
"I think if it was used properly, it would work," he said. "It'd be effective."
It's not just the ineligible drivers who are making HOV lanes less efficient, McKenzie said. It's also the people for whom the lanes were built.
"There's a lot of people that are multiple passengers just in the mainline that aren't using the (HOV) lane," he said. "The lane is designed for them."
He thinks some drivers don't like to be next to the concrete barrier or they have anxiety about driving on the freeway. Other drivers might be just going a short distance on the freeway.
"If you're going up to SeaTac, high occupancy, get in the lane and use it," McKenzie said. "It was designed for you, your taxpayers dollars paid for it."
Fast lanes and semis
The HOV lane is not a de facto fast lane or passing lane.
Semi trucks, which are banned from being in the fast lane, cannot drive in or next to an HOV lane. However, an exception to the law allows them to use the far left southbound lane on I-5 — but not the HOV lane — from Exit 135 at state Route 167 to Exit 130 at South 56th Street in Tacoma.
The same law provides about six similar exemptions on portions of freeways around the state.
Tragedy of the commons
Why do HOV violators feel they have a right to drive in the carpool lane?
Pacific Lutheran University psychology professor Michelle Ceynar likens it to the tragedy of the commons — the notion that individuals will take advantage of a resource for their own benefit at the expense of society at large.
"The HOV lane is somewhat similar in that when you can take advantage of something, you don't care if it makes it harder for other people," she said. "You're only thinking about yourself and your needs at the moment."
Another factor, she feels, is the anonymity that driving affords.
"You don't think of other cars as people," Ceynar said. "You think about those other cars getting in the way of where you want to go."
People do things in their cars they wouldn't think of doing in person, she said, "because you don't think anybody really sees you as an individual."
There's also the "everybody else is doing it" component. People are more likely to speed if others are speeding. People are more likely to toss trash in an area where others have already thrown theirs.
"If other people are violating those norms, those norms are just not held to it," Ceynar said. "You don't have to hold yourself to it either."
For Fey, the increased number of speeders, aggressive drivers and other violators on the region's highways is a sign of the times.
"I'm not a sociologist doing a scientific analysis, but the observation is that people don't seem to care about other people," he said.
