Q. Are babies considered a person when it comes to carpool lanes? Can a single driver and an infant count as a two-person carpool?
A: In 1974 Washington established carpool lanes for “efficient utilization of the highway” and “conservation of energy.” (This was the peak of the oil crisis.) The strategy was simple: reduce traffic by putting two or more would-be solo drivers into the same vehicle. Based on that, you might think the law would insist that only licensed drivers count toward carpool occupancy requirements. That is not the case.
The Washington Administrative Code states that the HOV lane is for the use of “private motor vehicles with the number of occupants specified on signs.” There is no mention of occupants being at least a certain age or holding a valid driver license.
For those of you who think that it’s sort of cheating to use the carpool lane with an infant, it might feel that way, but according to the law it’s not. Plus, while a new child brings a lot of joy, when we’re around people we trust we might admit that it’s not all rainbows and roses. There are the sleepless nights, the worry of being a new parent, and the smelly stuff that babies produce. Let the new parents have at least one win.
I’m not suggesting that anyone should have a kid just for the benefit of using the carpool lane. Unless you have a long urban commute and your job provides daycare. No, still don’t have a kid for that reason.
The standards for entry to a carpool lane are pretty low – have another human with a pulse with you. Those minimal barriers haven’t prevented some folks from trying to sneak into the lane with non-living occupants. Things that don’t count as an occupant (but people have tried) include skeletons, blow-up dolls, cardboard cutouts of celebrities, mannequins and corpses. As far as I know, the only people to attempt using corpses as occupants in a carpool lane have been hearse drivers. (Side note: using a “dummy, doll or human facsimile” in the carpool lane adds an additional $200 fine to the already steep ticket.)
Along with multi-occupant cars, the law does allow for a few other vehicles in the carpool lane, regardless of occupant count. These include public transit vehicles, buses with a capacity of 16 or more people, a few types of private transportation providers with capacity of at least eight people, motorcycles, on-duty police and fire emergency vehicles, and tow trucks responding to an emergency.
Having your infant along for the ride might save time in the moment, but in the long-term children add more driving to your life. Maybe not much while they’re babies, but once you get to the age of sports, band concerts and math teams, there’s a lot of driving going on. You’ll drive so much that you’ll neglect your hobbies and friends, and you’ll nearly forget what grown-up fun feels like. So that’s something for new parents to look forward to. At least you’ll have the carpool lane.
Actually, all that time in the car with your kid provides you with lots of opportunities to teach and model safe driving. You’ve likely prioritized safe driving now to protect your new and precious passenger. Continue to do it so that sixteen years from now when, with a smile on your face and a parent’s worry in your heart, you hand the car keys to that same kid, you’ll know that you’ve equipped them to make good driving decisions as they go out on their own.