As you drive down the interstate expressway, you may see a sign above a lane that refers to a POV. POV is simply an abbreviation for Privately Owned Vehicle.
Most city dwellers are familiar with the high volume of traffic that clogs highways and thoroughfares during rush hour. The problem has existed for years and shows no sign of disappearing.
To help deal with heavy traffic, the Federal Highway Administration has designated high-occupancy express lanes in cities across the country. By restricting use of these lanes to cars with multiple passengers, highway officials hope to encourage carpooling and mitigate traffic congestion problems. These lanes are known as HOV or High Occupancy Vehicle lanes; or often simply as "the carpool lane."
An express lane sign specifying that access is granted to POV--Privately Owned Vehicles--is making a distinction between private cars with multiple passengers and public transit vehicles such as buses.
Because buses can hold so many more passengers at once, they are generally given higher priority use of the HOV lane. A bus with 58 passengers is carrying the same number of people as 29 two-person carpool vehicles. The bus is, in a sense, a heavy-duty carpool.
Some municipalities may give private vehicles access to HOV lanes only at specified times and restrict the lanes to buses at other times.
