No eating that cake!

My daily commute is getting even harder with the introduction of car-pool lanes. Don’t get me wrong—I could be a tree-hugger in another life, but apart from picking up a hitchhiker to use the car-pool lane, I’m not sure I’ll ever be eligible. What really gets stuck in my craw is that users of car-pool lanes seem to be able to have their cake and eat it, too.

It is a fundamental law of the universe that people should not be able to “have their cake and eat it, too.” How would we console each other if our beloved clichés were disproved?

I’ve seen this many times. Much to my consternation, some drivers who would qualify for a sweet ride in the car-pool lane choose instead to drive in the middle lane. As soon as they see a tidal wave of brake lights, they move into the car-pool lane and zoom off.

Why is it that we allow such drivers to have their cake and eat it, too? Why should we accord such liberty and choice to them if those like me—yes, those with car-pool-lane envy—don’t get the same liberty and choice to use the car-pool lane at will?

I would like to see those nice officers in brown (I love men in uniform!) give a $271 ticket to those car-pool-lane-eligible drivers who are in regular lanes. They are clogging up the highway lanes with one more car that we single-occupant vehicles could have done without.

So, go ahead, current car-pool-lane drivers—use your lanes with relish, knowing that there is a small but distinct possibility that, one day, you will be forced to use just the car-pool lane and that you will be stuck in traffic, watching me zoom past in the middle lane, with a smirk on my face. That’s right, a big fat smirk aimed at you and your kind, violators of the universal law against having your cake and eating it, too.

Another clichéd expression comes to mind while I’m reveling in this dreamy, vengeful obsession: “Every dog has its day.”