The main artery into DC from where I live is HOV-2 only until 9am. Not just a lane, the whole road. So if you’re timing your commute to get to the HOV starting point right at 9:00, but traffic is lighter than normal, you get there a little early. Usually people pull over a few feet before the line, and just wait until it’s 9:00 on the dot before continuing. I got there at 8:53 this morning, so I went to pull over behind three other cars stacked up waiting. Before I got onto the shoulder, a police car came up behind me with his lights on. Startled, I stopped in the rightmost lane and he pulled up next to me. He said, “you weren’t planning to pull over here, were you? Because it’s illegal.” Apparently it’s illegal to stop there: “improper stopping on a highway.” I had no idea! He waved at me to keep going, then parked and got out of his car to talk to the other three drivers.

So I kept going, but for the next 7 minutes I worried - hey, now I’m driving in HOV-only lanes. What if I get pulled over? I was trying to obey the HOV laws by waiting. Is it fair to penalize somebody for traffic being too light that day? You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t, as far as I can tell.