Children as Passengers in Car-Pool Lanes

In a letter to the editor (Dec. 10), Christine Taxier raised an important point about car-pool lanes, in addition to the one about conserving energy. She righteously pointed out how she obeys the law by driving in a car-pool lane with no other adults in her car, only children. Yes, this qualifies her to do so, but she is only supporting the same illogic that our Orange County Transportation Commission uses. Supposedly, the objective of having a car-pool lane is to get drivers out of their cars, and to ride with some other driver--thus eliminating one or more cars from the road. Using children to qualify as a car-pool driver does not eliminate one car from the road.

A better car-pool lane rule would be to require two or more people of driver license age. Then we would have a greater probability that a passenger in the car is a licensed driver and, therefore, probably eliminating a car from the road.

Maybe Taxier misunderstood some of the dirty looks she gets from other motorists; maybe the dirty looks are because she has no adults in the car with her.

R.F. CRAIG

Anaheim