The entire HOV/HOT concept should be abandoned. It never helped traffic in general and in fact made it worse. States love these programs because they get fed money if they implement it.
When an accident occurs and HOV restrictions are temporarily lifted, traffic amazingly improves to the point that it is better than without the accident and with HOV in place. The most telling sign of what a joke this concept is.
Part of the problem is VA does not have the money to increase highway capacity so they are using these HOT lanes to get private investment to pay for them.