H-1 Zipper Lane users have cut 17 to 20 minutes off their average morning commute since the ridership minimum went from two to three people per vehicle in July, the state Department of Transportation says.

That's the good news.

The bad news is police and DOT officials aren't sure what to do about the thousands of solo drivers every day who abuse the HOV lanes that are meant only for vehicles with at least two people onboard between 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. on weekdays.

An unscientific Advertiser count confirmed what morning commuters have seen with their own eyes: that many, maybe most, of the drivers in the H-1 HOV lane are breaking the law.

"We get more calls and complaints on HOV violations than the Zipper Lane," said Lt. Gordon Shiraishi of the Honolulu Police Department's Traffic Division. "That's probably because once you get in the Zipper it's not like you can duck away from the violation if you're caught.

"With the HOV lane, you can duck in and out. It's difficult to enforce for a number of reasons. First and foremost our officers' responsibility is traffic management. Keep the traffic flowing. On an HOV violation, it's hard to pull them over without causing a traffic jam so you have to pick and choose your locations."

WE COUNTED THE CHEATERS

On Tuesday morning, a reporter and a photographer from The Advertiser conducted an unscientific audit of the H-1 HOV and Zipper lanes. If the pair couldn't determine whether passengers were in the backseats, the vehicle was counted as meeting the minimum requirement, just as a police officer does.

From 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., during several two- and three-minute intervals at observation spots ranging from the Kaonohi Overpass to the Wahiawa Overpass and during a drive on H-1 into town, The Advertiser observed the following:

• The Zipper Lane, at least on this day when traffic flowed very well, appeared to be underused. Several times up to a minute passed between vehicles. After one 57-second interval, two cars passed under the Kaonohi Overpass and both had only a single driver. However, 9 out of 10 vehicles audited during other intervals appeared to have at least three occupants. Zipper Lane violations were scarce.

• Out of about 80 vehicles that passed under the Kaonohi Overpass in the HOV lane at 7:05 a.m., 49 had at least two people in the vehicle and 31 had only a single driver. Several other interval checks revealed similar numbers.

• Out of about 45 vehicles that passed under the Wahiawa Overpass in the HOV lane at 7:30 a.m., 31 had at least two people in the vehicle and 14 had a single driver.

• Driving back into town, starting at Kamehameha Highway and going past the airport viaduct, 10 cars passed us using the HOV lane. Nine had a single driver. This high ratio of violators when the Advertiser team had the clearest view of a vehicle's rear seat indicates that many of the vehicles that got the benefit of the doubt at other locations were actually in violation.

• Pickup trucks seemed to be the biggest violators, though all kinds of vehicles violated the HOV rule, including some business-owned vehicles with company logos on the side.

COMMUTERS ARE UPSET

The findings, though unscientific, seem to be match what morning commuters have told The Advertiser: There are a lot of HOV violations and little enforcement.

"It's difficult for the police to catch somebody when they abuse the HOV lane because there's no shoulder or anywhere to pull them over unless they get off near Nimitz," said Mary Jean Castillo-Barkley, a member of the Mililani Neighborhood Board who commutes into town regularly. "It does bothers me seeing it. If it's against the rule, you shouldn't do it."

Short of adding cameras that could record car license numbers for tickets that would be mailed later, police are at a severe disadvantage when enforcing the HOV law.

The H-1 HOV lane is the inside lane next to the concrete Zipper Lane barrier, so there is no shoulder to pull violators over without disturbing traffic. Police must also be certain there is no one but the driver in the vehicle, which is not easy to determine when traffic is often flowing at 55 mph or more.

Shiraishi said that unless violators are found at the end of the HOV lane, they are often only ticketed if a police officer follows the vehicle until it's clear to pull the driver over

"The funny thing is, our officers like to give the HOV violators tickets when they can because they know what it's like to commute," Shiraishi said. "But they have other responsibilities, like clearing traffic accidents and stalls. We enforce it whenever we can."

The Advertiser team saw a police vehicle directly behind an HOV violator near the Kaonohi Overpass, but did not see the vehicle get pulled over. However, there was nowhere for the officer to safely pull over the violater.

UP TO $200 FINE

Violators caught abusing either carpool lane risk a $75 ticket for the first time and $150 the second time in the same year. A third or further violation within a year carries a $200 fine.

"There are other technologies to curb cheating like photo enforcement and infrared monitoring, but we would need legislation to authorize us to do so and these kinds of laws have been controversial in the past," said Tammy Mori, spokeswoman for the DOT. "Other jurisdictions have had some success with this in enforcement."

Save time with Zipper Lane

The only clear solution for drivers looking to legally speed their commutes is to start carpooling and using taking advantage of the open road that the Zipper Lane offers.

Mori said that since the new ridership rules were implemented in July early-morning Zipper Lane commuters have seen their time on the road greatly reduced.

"During the first half of the morning commute, until about 6:30 a.m., it used to take 15 to 20 minutes longer to travel in the Zipper Lane than it did to drive in the general-purpose lanes," Mori said. "It took about 42 minutes to travel from Kapolei into town on TheBus. Now it takes an average of 23 minutes to travel the same distance."

The DOT monitors traffic flow daily and its statistics show an average of 20,369 vehicles commuting from Kapolei into town on the H-1. HOV use is at 5,258 per day and Zipper Lane use is 2,546. Mori said that before the rule change, Zipper Lane use was 3,584 vehicles per day.

"We made that switch in order to encourage more to consider carpooling," Mori said. "That was one of our goals — to reduce the commute time for those who choose to carpool.

"We believe the numbers are very promising."