Signs, signals and pavement markings
You are driving next to a carpool (HOV) lane that is separated from your lane by double solid white lines. When may you cross them to enter the HOV lane?
- Never; wait until the marking changes to a single broken white line. Correct answer
- Whenever the HOV lane is moving faster than your lane.
- Any time you have the required number of passengers.
Why
Double solid white lines mark a barrier between a regular lane and a preferential lane, such as an HOV lane, and also appear near freeway on- and off-ramps. You never change lanes across them, in either direction. Having enough passengers makes you eligible to use the HOV lane, but eligibility does not let you cross the barrier: you enter and exit only where the marking becomes a single broken white line or at a designated entrance. The speed of the other lane is irrelevant. The same idea applies to the double solid lines on the left of some HOV lanes: cross only at designated entrances and exits.
Where this comes from
California Driver's Handbook, DL 600 ENGLISH (REV. 6/2025). The correct answer is Never; wait until the marking changes to a single broken white line..