Arguments for Letting Pregnant
Mothers Use HOV Lanes

• HOV lanes are typically underutilized as it is. Allowing a limited increase in the number of vehicles that can use them will ease traffic flow for everybody.
   

• Hybrid vehicles (cars that use both electricity and gas) are now allowed to use HOV lanes. Giving these vehicles the privilege of using carpool lanes makes less sense than letting pregnant mothers use them, because a woman carrying a baby in her womb is at least more in line with the original spirit of the law.
   

• Expectant mothers are a relatively small group and people will usually go out of their way to help a pregnant woman out anyway. If you saw a pregnant woman standing up on a bus, the decent thing to do would be to offer her your seat, so why not let her use the carpool lane?
   

• People are not going to become pregnant in order to take advantage of this exemption. The issue of falsification can be addressed by requiring Proof-of-Pregnancy (POP).
   

• From a humanitarian standpoint, letting expectant mothers move through traffic more quickly makes sense. Sitting in a car can be extremely uncomfortable for a pregnant woman, especially with the issues of urinary frequency that come with being pregnant. Anybody who has had an eight-month pregnancy pressing on her bladder can tell you how excruciating it is to be stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.