"while encouraging more cars and suv's to be on the road. "

- really? You think a mandatory SUV lane would encourage people to buy SUV's? I certainly don't. But i agree about the mother earth bit -- that does suck.

It really is frustrating driving a small vehicle and being stuck behind a Ford Excursion while driving down some street, then thinking, "hey, i'll switch lanes", only to switch lanes and have an Expedition drop in front. This is repeated over and over again. I swear to God, sometimes it seems like 3/4 of the cars on the streets here in southern california are SUV's or trucks (not including commercial).