Every driver in Miami knows about traffic congestion. The major streets and interstates are packed. It’s bad enough at most times, but during rush hour the traffic is bumper to bumper. Miami needs more roads, but there is little space for building those roads. This has been a problem for decades and it is only getting worse with each passing year. If you sat down and tried to figure out a solution to this problem, you might think that the solution would be to designate one lane on the interstates to only some cars. You could come up with criteria for which cars could use this lane. For example, if you made it so that only cars with at least one passenger could use this special lane, you might encourage people to car pool. That would cut down on the number of cars on the road and thus reduce traffic congestion.

Wait, you are not a politician or a city planner? That is not the solution that you would come up with? You know that Americans do not like to car pool so that this designated lane on the interstate will usually be empty? Well, pretend that you did come up with this solution because it is the solution that we have in South Florida. These lanes are called HOV lanes. They were meant to reduce congestion and to save the environment by having fewer cars on the road. It did not work and now most of the time  traffic in the HOV lanes is almost nonexistent. All this has done has made it so that traffic congestion is worse in Miami. There is one less lane that people can use. Of course, drivers who see this empty lane are tempted to use it, even just for a little bit. It makes sense. You are stuck behind some elderly driver going well below the speed limit. Why not use the empty HOV lane to quickly pass the slow driver? It does not harm anyone. No one else is using the HOV lane.

This is what people in Miami do all the time. Unfortunately, if they get caught they will be issued a new Miami Dade traffic ticket. The police do not care that the HOV lane is empty. They do not care that grandpa was blocking traffic for miles. They do not care that it is safer to pass a slow driver than to block traffic. The only thing that the police care about is tearing another page out of their ticket books at your expense. You should resist the temptation to drive in the HOV lane unless you meet the criteria. However, we all know that many people are not going to be able to resist when it makes sense to use the empty lane and gets them home sooner. That means that many people do get Miami Dade traffic tickets for driving in the HOV lanes. If one of them is you, why not hire a traffic ticket attorney to assist you? There is no reason that your one moment of weakness that caused you to do something that makes perfect sense should also cause you to have to pay a traffic ticket, suffer points against your license and pay higher auto insurance rates. That’s right, an HOV traffic ticket in Florida will cost you more than the price of the ticket. You face increased insurance, license suspension and more. An experienced traffic ticket attorney can make sure that does not happen to you. We offer free consultations for people with Miami Dade traffic tickets for driving in HOV lanes or any other traffic tickets.