How are HOV lanes enforced?
Enforcement of the freeway HOV lanes is the responsibility of the Washington State Patrol. Although safety-related activities take priority, the State Patrol enforces the HOV lanes as much as possible. The State Patrol issued almost 10,000 tickets for HOV violations in 2008. An HOV lane violation ticket costs $124. In order to assist HOV lane integrity, we also rely on citizens to report HOV lane violators through the HERO program. You can help the HOV system by reporting the license plate number, vehicle description, time of day, and location of any violators you may see. HERO reports do discourage repeat offenders. Less than three percent of those reported in 2007 were reported a second time, and fewer than two percent were reported three or more times. Although violations vary from spot to spot, the average violation rate on our system is less than five percent –one of the nation’s lowest average HOV violation rates.
