Jevon’s Paradox — Carpool Lanes

Growing up in southern California, my family always avoided driving during peak traffic times — it just wasn’t worth it. However, the one caveat to that would be the carpool lane. I frequently would hear my dad saying “Wait…. We can go in the carpool lane!! It’ll be faster.” And then we would go. Reflecting on that now within the context of urban economics and Jevon’s paradox, a policy that was supposed to decrease the number of cars on the road, may actually increase it. There have been numerous times where my family would have just decided not to drive during that time if it weren’t for the carpool lane. In a Spectrum News article, a professor from UC Berkeley says “Just like other goods, travel is something of value, and if you make the price of travel lower, then people want to consume more of it…Increased travel speeds decrease the price of travel and lead to increased travel overall, he said.” Knowing that driving in the carpool lane will decrease the cost of driving in traffic through both time and gas money leads many to make the decision to drive when they otherwise would not have if they couldnt go in the carpool lane or if there was no carpool lane to exist. What does this mean? When carpool lanes are having the opposite effect than what was intended? How do we change policy so that it incorporates this paradox? Is that even possible? What if this is the case for only some HOV lanes? (https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/transportation/2021/04/08/do-high-occupancy-vehicles-lane-reduce-traffic--or-add-to-it-)