High Occupancy Vehicle lanes have emerged in Toronto in preparation for the much anticipated Pan American Games. The lanes have been created to facilitate the traveling to-and-fro of athletes to their respective venues; but they have left Toronto commuters up in arms in a divisive way between those who see no problem with it because they live in the city and can bike to work, and those who are forced to commute via vehicle to work.
In the spirit of this contentious issue, and the vitriol it has drawn, here are some ideas for things you can do to beat the HOV lane:
1. Run a 3-way Skype/Face-time call from your car to muster up the 3-occupant minimum, then jerk the car on to the HOV and step on it.
2. Start your own morning show--live from the middle lane, churning out your own conglomerated news on traffic, moment-to-moment weather, and political commentary, particularly regarding the Pan American Games and Toronto's facilitation thereof.
3. Ditch your car on the shoulder, after flagging down a couple on their way to work, and car pool via HOV the rest of the way.
4. Turn the shoulder into a kiss 'n ride parking lot and begin a self-organized campaign to reclaim the HOV through spontaneous car-pooling (similar to 3, but slightly different).
5. Leave an hour or two earlier to beat the rush of traffic to work--not as exciting as numbers 1-4, but somewhere in here must sound the call of reason.
6. Car pool with people from your workplace or friends, etc, to, again, reclaim the HOV.
7. Order up some official Team Canada uniforms (or, really, your team of choice), and infiltrate the team bus--depending of course and your proximity to the venues, the logistics of getting from point A to B could present a number of hiccups, monetary and otherwise.
8. Place an ad on Kijiji or some other social network to see who's travelling from where to hitch a ride with, forming, again, a car pool.
9. Find an alternative route into or out of the city on Google map.
10. Start a highway vending service for the massive line ups on the Gardiner--this is a booming business in the making, and any entrepreneur worth his or her guild should have a business model right now ready to implement.
11. Those allowed on the HOV lanes are: emergency vehicles, taxis, electric cars with 'green' license plate, and motorcycles. So... a) Know anyone with an emergency vehicle willing to give you a lift to work? If yes, problem solved; if 'no', then b) rent an electric car till August, if unfeasible, then, c) borrow your cousin's Harley and learn to ride by doing... If too dangerous, then d) refer to numbers 10 and above.
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