Sprawl Killed the Car Pool?

Interesting story in the Times on the decline of car pooling, despite efforts to encourage it (HOV lanes).

Link

Of course, DC is perhaps one of the last weakholds of the car pool, what with all our HOV lanes: "What remains, of course, is traffic, and in places like Washington, where it adds hours to commutes, people car-pool to take advantage of the fast-track car-pooling lanes."

Traffic was especially an issue this week, with the snow. Not much snow, but it was preceded by ice, and as everyone knows, an hour of ice is worth about 6-8 inches of snow in terms of causing problems, traffic and otherwise. At least one large limb fell on our street, and 100's of 1000's were without power for a day. I heard horror stories from colleagues at work--who drive--of 12-hour, 8-hour trips home.

As someone who walks to work, and my walk takes 20 minutes at a leisurely (toddler) pace, all I can say is, I can't imagine.