This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Be warned. This week the Utah Highway Patrol is focusing its evil meanie attention on high- occupancy-vehicle-lane violators.

According to a recent news story, "A UDOT study released in August shows 18 percent of all cars in those lanes are violators — so the department pays for occasional blitzes to help lower that rate and preserve federal funding."

One in five drivers in the HOV lane is there illegally, using it as a passing lane or just as their own personal alternate route. You know the drivers I'm talking about, better known as those "*%@#& lane hogs."

They increase congestion, cut across double lines or even drive blithely along singing to an oldies tune on the radio. I know because I used to be one of them.

It's true. When HOV lanes first came into existence in Utah, I regarded them as an extra lane of travel. If no one else was using them, why couldn't I? It was a waste of perfectly good asphalt.

Then the UHP jumped all over me for doing it. Not the entire UHP. Just one particular trooper. He was unprofessionally rude about it, too. He went so far as safeguard your life by threatening mine.

Ironically, I wasn't driving when it happened. I was walking through the parking garage at work when my cellphone rang.

Me: "Good morning. Salt Lake Tribune. How may I attend your every need, sir or ma'am?"

Trooper: "It's me, you idiot. That was you in the HOV lane a few minutes ago, wasn't it?"

When I tried to explain to the trooper that it couldn't have been me because I had taken the corporate helicopter to work that morning, he launched into a verbal warning just short of a second-degree burn.

Him: "I was busy with that crash near 4500 South. Otherwise you'd have some paperwork crammed in your @$$ right now."

Me: "OK, calm down. Are you still coming to the barbecue on Saturday?"

That was the end of my HOV crime spree. I can take a hint/suggestion/threat as well as the next guy, especially when it comes from someone who has my cell number and the alarm code to my house memorized.

I was lucky that time. Things haven't always gone so well. And it's damn lucky for you that they haven't. Every ticket I ever got — not nearly as many as I've deserved — probably saved someone's life.

Like most Utah drivers, fear of getting stopped and ticketed by the oppressive forces of highway darkness is the only reason I drive as well as I do. It sure as hell isn't natural skill or even consideration for the well-being of others.

Want to know what else is scary? It's getting between drivers like me and wherever we happen to be going at the moment. Someone has to do something about this reckless sense of self-entitlement on the freeway.

I'm glad that the UHP is throwing its weight around this week. It improves the odds of me (and you) getting where we're going safely.

Granted, UHP troopers stopping violators on the freeway can make things a bit more inconvenient for the rest of us. After all, we have to slow and be careful when we pass by.

But it's better than the mass depersonalizing effects of photo radar enforcement. It's also better than the humbling effects of traffic enforcement through cellphones.

Robert Kirby can be reached at rkirby@sltrib.com or facebook.com/stillnotpatbagley.