Why would anyone be encouraged to carpool so they can sit in a cruising lane behind a bus? Come on

If there is heavy traffic, the carpool lane is awesome and you get to go faster than regular traffic. People sitting in traffic look over at the carpool lane and think to themselves, “if I could only find someone to ride with, I wouldn’t have to sit in this traffic.”

It’s totally different when there isn’t heavy traffic. The right lanes of the highway are built to go slower. If you want to go the speed limit or go slower than the speed limit, which isn’t advised because it’s also unsafe, you can sit in the right lanes. But there’s no reason to take up a spot in the carpool lane. It’s not a cruising Lane. That’s not why it was designed. It was designed to encourage people to carpool and therefore reduce overall traffic.

And you are 100% right, it is not designed to be a passing lane. So don’t make yourself someone that needs to be passed. If you want to go slow, get on the right side of the freeway. It’s not rocket science.