The long car pool line

I noticed a sudden change of my commute routine this week: I have a more predictable morning drive to work nowadays.

I drive from East Bay to Redwood Shores every day. Typically I pick up two commuters from a casual car pool staging area, and get on I-80's car pool lane and avoid the Bay Bridge toll booth. Several months ago a typical situation is that the cars waited in a line in the staging area for commuters. The wait time ranges from five to ten minutes, sometimes fifteen minutes. The situation is reversed. Cars don't have to wait; people wait in line now.

The highways are still crowded with cars. But I do notice a few traffic congestions along my commute route. The traffic slows down a couple times along I-80 and 101, but it doesn't slow to stop and go anymore.

Is this the result of high gas price and slower economy?