HOV vs. Carpool Lanes by state

[Pink Jazz]

I was wondering, does anyone know which states refer to such lanes as either "HOV" lanes or "Carpool" lanes?

Here is what I know:

• Arizona - HOV
• California - Carpool
• Colorado - HOV
• Florida - HOV
• Georgia - HOV
• Maryland - HOV
• Nevada - HOV
• Texas - HOV
• Virginia - HOV

Specifically, do any states other than California call them Carpool lanes?

[Brandon]

Illinois has neither - there are no HOV or Carpool lanes in the entire state.

[1995hoo]

I've seen "HOV" signs in New York as well.

Back in the 1970s, Virginia had signs referring to "Pool Cars." The first "HOV" signs in Virginia appeared in 1982.

[SectorZ]

http://www.mhd.state.ma.us/default.asp?pgid=car/FAQ-HOV-93N&sid=about

Guess Massachusetts in the matter of a few sentences can manage to call them both, but colloquially people call them the HOV lane.

[dfilpus]

North Carolina: HOV
Michigan: HOV

[Scott5114]

Illinois has neither - there are no HOV or Carpool lanes in the entire state.

Likewise for Oklahoma, and unless something's changed Kansas. I don't think there's any in MO, but I could be mistaken.

[jeffandnicole]

NJ: HOV

[sdmichael]

California is switching to the new MUTCD standards for HOV lanes, which includes signing them as HOV lanes.

[NE2]

Virginia also uses "restricted lane" in the DC and Hampton Roads areas. DC uses HOV on its access points.

[Kacie Jane]

Washington calls them HOV lanes 99% of the time, but there are signs on I-405 saying "No trucks in carpool lane" and VMS messages seen to run about 50/50 between "HOV" and "carpool".

[SSOWorld]

HOV == Carpool.

[sdmichael]

HOV == Carpool.

Yes, we are aware. The question was about how they are actually signed. In California, they have been signed as "Carpool" where other jurisdictions call them "HOV". New HOV lanes in California are being changed to HOV instead of Carpool and older lanes will be modified in time.

[SSOWorld]

IC.  gotta love PC eh?

[Roadsguy]

PennDOT uses "Restricted Lanes" on all of the one set of HOV lanes in the state.

[roadfro]

Nevada uses HOV.

I would think most jurisdictions would use HOV term since that is what is present in the MUTCD. Those that don't probably are facilities that predate the adoption of MUTCD's HOV standards (such as, most likely, California's use of Carpool).

[1995hoo]

Virginia also uses "restricted lane" in the DC and Hampton Roads areas. DC uses HOV on its access points.

The "Restricted Lanes" signs in the I-95 corridor are disappearing because of the HO/T project. Signs north of the project are being changed (somewhat inconsistently, to be sure) to read "HOV LANES." Makes sense because the HO/T lanes will be "restricted" but will carry a different restriction from the HOV lanes to the north.

This sign said "Restricted Lanes" until a few weeks ago:




Edited to add: Here is the old "Pool Cars" sign I mentioned. This is just about the same location as the other picture above, but it was the better part of 40 years ago:

[jakeroot]

Washington calls them HOV lanes 99% of the time, but there are signs on I-405 saying "No trucks in carpool lane" and VMS messages seen to run about 50/50 between "HOV" and "carpool".

If you take a gander through historical street view, you can see signs along the 405 used to say "carpool", but have slowly been replaced with, well, icons:

[froggie]

Minnesota's former HOV lanes have now become HO/T lanes and are officially called "MnPASS Express Lanes" (referring to the brand of ETC used).  Overhead signs use the term "Car Pools" (two words, not one) such as in this I-35W example.  Except for the dynamic shoulder lane on northbound I-35W from 42nd St to ~26th St, the MnPASS lanes are open to all traffic during non-peak hours.

[roadman]

http://www.mhd.state.ma.us/default.asp?pgid=car/FAQ-HOV-93N&sid=about

Guess Massachusetts in the matter of a few sentences can manage to call them both, but colloquially people call them the HOV lane.

All signing on I-93 now refers to the lanes both north and south of Boston as "HOV 2+ Lane".

[NWI_Irish96]

Illinois has neither - there are no HOV or Carpool lanes in the entire state.

Also none in Indiana.

[GaryV]

Michigan: HOV

Where?

[dfilpus]

Michigan Avenue, in Detroit.

[oscar]

Hawaii seems to use the diamond symbol followed by "Buses and Car Pools", no use of the HOV abbreviation.  Since Hawaii DOT mimics Caltrans in many ways, that makes sense.

Alaska has no restricted lanes on its freeways.

[mass_citizen]

I think the real question is what percentage of drivers know what "HOV" stands for versus know the definition of "carpool" 

[SignGeek101]

Ontario uses HOV. I don't recall ever seeing the term used on a sign though, due to bilingualism here. Pictures are used instead. Haven't really looked hard though.

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/traveller/hov/faq.shtml#a7