Carpool lanes . . .

This morning while driving to work I was wondering about carpool lanes. I know what you're thinking. Why would Rick be thinking about the diamond lanes on the freeway when there are so many other things to worry about: Who is the next terrorist on the Navy Seals list (great job fellas'!)? The national debt. Home prices. The Stock Market. The price of gold. The price of gas. The 2012 election (are you kidding?). Taxes. Immigration control. The nuclear meltdown in Japan (have you noticed the media stopped talking about that?). Who is going to win American Idol? Why is Dancing with the Stars so popular? Is Kim Kardashian going to be posing in a bikini today? Who the hell is Coco? And the Jersey Shore in Italy. With all these important issues to fog up my brain, why focus on the carpool lane. Because it irritates me.

During the peak hours of traffic, we take a perfectly good freeway and shrink it by one lane. That's a good idea! What governmenl worm thought this up? Can't the Tea Party do something about it? Can we have the Seals raid their compound? Our liberty is being violated. Am I the only one who thinks the carpool lane is stupid? The premise is that people will carpool to save gas. Have you ever watched the people flying by while you inch forward at a snails pace? Half of them (and we aren't talking about Hybrids) only have one person in the car. The CHP (at $281 per ticket) could put a huge chunk in the state's debt. Just put cop at both ends and have him point to the side of the freeway to receive a fat ticket. While they are at, they can issue another ticket to the people who think holding the cell phone as a speakerphone are not breaking the law. I say we get rid of carpool lanes. Open the freeway up to all of us. If carpoolers want to have their own lane, give it to them between 9:00AM and 3:00PM. They will still feel special and all of us could get to work a bit faster.