Air Date: Week of December 11, 1998

A range of response to our recent query on highway carpool lanes.

Transcript

CURWOOD: And now, comments from you, our listeners.

(Music up and under)

CURWOOD: Recently, we asked you to weigh in on the subject of carpool lanes, and here's a sampling of the response. William Kinkaid, who hears us on KWMU in St. Louis, says carpool lanes are a mere band-aid for a bigger problem: the lack of alternative means of transportation.

KINKAID: In order to fix the big problem, a carpool lane isn't going to do much more than give us a feeling that we're moving in the right direction. But I think that money that is going to those cities should probably be invested in a long-term project to get us off of the petroleum and onto some other more renewable energy source.

CURWOOD: John Drennan, who listens to us on KQED in San Francisco, called from his car phone to register his vote against carpool lanes.

DRENNAN: I'm currently on Highway 280, which I regularly commute on. And on my evening commutes, the carpool lane emerges at a certain point, and that actually causes the only traffic problem that I have in my whole commute.

CURWOOD: But another KQED listener, Bobbi Ohs, says the carpool backlash shows just how closed-minded and selfish people can be. "Commuters," she says, "should put more effort into finding ways to cooperate."

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