End of HOV Lane for Hybrids; More Room for Leaf

[tbleakne]

Life in the fast lane is coming to an end for hybrid drivers.

After a six-year run, the yellow stickers that allow owners of about 85,000 older hybrid vehicles to drive solo in carpool lanes are expiring July 1 — this time for good. . . .
Once the yellow stickers expire, the only Californians who will be able to drive alone in carpool lanes will be those who have white stickers for their all-electric or natural gas-powered vehicles. About 10,000 white stickers have been issued.

The white stickers will be good until 2015.

How did they get to 10,000 to date ? That is a lot more than the number of Leafs + Teslas delivered to date, especially in CA. Are there that many conversions out there ?

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-...(L.A. Times - Business)&utm_source=feedburner

 

[rawhog]

.

 

[jaanton]

There are a lot of the white stickers in commercial fleets. AT&T and PG&E have many trucks which use CNG and have the white stickers. That seems cool to me. You want utility service/repair to get to locations quickly. CNG is a great option for these fleets. You install the CNG compressors and storage at the fleet parking lot and have them filled regularly. Some municipalities have many of the CNG civics which again are probably part of a fleet.

 

[Adrian]

There are a butt load of CNG Honda Civics out there.

My family has 2 CNG Civics in addition to my Leaf. I think we'll have more Leafs in CA by the end of next year that the total number of Civic CNGs sold in CA by Honda since 1998. My understanding is that Honda only produced 500 or so CNG Civics per year for the entire US from 98-2000, then slowly ramped up production to a measly 1,000 units per year 2001-2005. Then 1,500-2,000 per year 2006-2011. For the entire US. So about 17k CNG Civics produced since 1998 for the entire US. If 70% of them were in CA (maybe a high estimate as many were sold to fleets outside of CA, especially NY), there would be a total of about 12,000 CNG Civics in CA if all of them were still on the road. It's great to see Nissan committed to putting more EVs on the road in the first 2 yrs of production than Honda's CNG Civic production in 13 yrs.

 

[Spies]

Don't forget to count the Ford CNG Crown Victoria. I am pretty sure a large number of those were sold to fleets. I seem to remember a number of taxi companies had quite a few of them.

Keep in mind that the electric cars of the 90s that were "taken out of service" did not have those HOV stickers added back into the HOV sticker pool from what I understand either.

 

[xtremeflyer]

One of the reasons I chose the Leaf isn't because it has access to the HOV, its because my commute is at its breaking point and I was scared of the 85,000 Hybrids getting kicked out of the HOV and into the lanes that I currently drive in. I know all of them aren't in LA or driving my route, but I see enough of them in the Carpool to know that they'll soon be affecting my drive.

If the hybrids weren't getting kicked out, I probably still would have gotten the Leaf, but that was definitely the tipping point.

 

[townsat]

Let's hope John Burton doesn't get his way...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/15/EDV71JG5EI.DTL

 

[Tesla]

There are a lot of the white stickers in commercial fleets. AT&T and PG&E have many trucks which use CNG and have the white stickers. That seems cool to me. You want utility service/repair to get to locations quickly. CNG is a great option for these fleets. You install the CNG compressors and storage at the fleet parking lot and have them filled regularly. Some municipalities have many of the CNG civics which again are probably part of a fleet.

Like Adrian, I have a Leaf and a CNG Civic. I also have two CNG Ford pickups (formerly government work trucks) - all with white stickers. With natural gas compressors installed at my home, I never have to go to a gas station and I rarely have to visit a public CNG station ... and I charge my Leaf at work for free.

Looking forward to more room for my Leaf ... and for my pickups.

 

[Herm]

With natural gas compressors installed at my home, I never have to go to a gas station and I rarely have to visit a public CNG station ... and I charge my Leaf at work for free.

What compressor are you using?.. the Phil?.. how often does it need to be serviced?.. I would love one of those used gov CNG trucks if I had piped-in gas.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

i think they should toss personal vehicles out of the HOV lanes and allow commercial only vehicles designed for maintenance/delivery (no taxis) roles. this impacts the service company's bottom line directly. i know a package driver for a company that supports USPS and he gets paid big OT because he estimates that traffic adds 2-3 hours to every day of work.

right now he is fighting an attempt to go to split shifts where they take a 3 hour break in the middle of the day when traffic is at its worst (the traffic here sucks nearly all day long!!) there are a hand full that actually volunteered for this shift and it has proved to increase their productivity now the company wants all of them to do it.

 

[Tesla]

What compressor are you using?.. the Phil?.. how often does it need to be serviced?.. I would love one of those used gov CNG trucks if I had piped-in gas.

One Fuelmaker FMQ2-36 for CNG vehicles that can take 3600 psi, one Fuelmaker FM4 for CNG vehicles that can take 3000 psi. They work twice as fast as the Phil and need to be installed outside. Check out chgchat.com for more discussion on the subject.

 

[TomT]

This would never fly. Remember that the primary idea behind the HOV lanes is to cut emissions. Reducing congestion and travel times is a secondary consideration.

i think they should toss personal vehicles out of the HOV lanes and allow commercial only vehicles designed for maintenance/delivery (no taxis) roles. this impacts the service company's bottom line directly. i know a package driver for a company that supports USPS and he gets paid big OT because he estimates that traffic adds 2-3 hours to every day of work.

 

[Tesla]

i think they should toss personal vehicles out of the HOV lanes and allow commercial only vehicles designed for maintenance/delivery (no taxis) roles. this impacts the service company's bottom line directly.

I think more individuals and more companies should be incentivized enough by the HOV lane perk so they swap their gasoline vehicles for BEVs or dedicated CNG vehicles. Having such a vehicle directly affects my company's bottom line as I bill by the hour and cannot bill for time sitting in traffic.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

u r right. we as Americans will fight to the nth degree to insure our self-serving status and interests, despite the fact that we have not been able to pay for that status for decades

another thing would be to make HOV lanes more restrictive to increase attraction (registered carpools, Alt Fuels ONLY) but allowing single drivers is completely beyond my comprehension unless i factor in a huge amount of "American Assumed Privilege"

 

[dactec]

another thing would be to make HOV lanes more restrictive to increase attraction (registered carpools, Alt Fuels ONLY) but allowing single drivers is completely beyond my comprehension unless i factor in a huge amount of "American Assumed Privilege"

I don't see anything wrong with allowing single occupancy vehicles in the HOV lane if they meet the criteria. The Clean Air Stickers were setup as a non-momentary incentive for people to buy expensive economy cars. (minus the roadster, which is an expensive sports car)

With the premium that Hybrids demanded when the 85,000 cap was reached, stickers could be cheaper to implement than rebates or credits.

On that note, July will bring about a strange time in the HOV lane in Cali. I'm in a Civic CNG, which only looks different to the the untrained eye by the blue diamond CNG sticker. Hopefully I'm not mistaken for a Hybrid with faded yellow stickers and pulled over.

 

[astrorob]

another thing would be to make HOV lanes more restrictive to increase attraction (registered carpools, Alt Fuels ONLY) but allowing single drivers is completely beyond my comprehension unless i factor in a huge amount of "American Assumed Privilege"

On that note, July will bring about a strange time in the HOV lane in Cali. I'm in a Civic CNG, which only looks different to the the untrained eye by the blue diamond CNG sticker. Hopefully I'm not mistaken for a Hybrid with faded yellow stickers and pulled over.

as late as 2009 i had a strange encounter with a CHP motorcycle cop while in the carpool lane in my stickered prius. he pulled in front of me and gestured "2" with his fingers at me and then took off. i could only interpret this to mean that he thought i was violating the carpool rules but had somewhere else to be.

pretty strange as the car has all 4 stickers, and it is a black prius. that's got to be the highest contrast situation for the yellow stickers.

yeah, i predict that there will be a lot of CNG civic drivers getting hassled past July 1.

 

[thankyouOB]

another thing would be to make HOV lanes more restrictive to increase attraction (registered carpools, Alt Fuels ONLY) but allowing single drivers is completely beyond my comprehension unless i factor in a huge amount of "American Assumed Privilege"

On that note, July will bring about a strange time in the HOV lane in Cali. I'm in a Civic CNG, which only looks different to the the untrained eye by the blue diamond CNG sticker. Hopefully I'm not mistaken for a Hybrid with faded yellow stickers and pulled over.

as late as 2009 i had a strange encounter with a CHP motorcycle cop while in the carpool lane in my stickered prius. he pulled in front of me and gestured "2" with his fingers at me and then took off. i could only interpret this to mean that he thought i was violating the carpool rules but had somewhere else to be.

pretty strange as the car has all 4 stickers, and it is a black prius. that's got to be the highest contrast situation for the yellow stickers.

yeah, i predict that there will be a lot of CNG civic drivers getting hassled past July 1.

maybe he was giving you the V for Victory.

 

[thankyouOB]

HOV EARLY TIP

I got my license number and filed for HOV within three weeks of getting the car.
My dealer DMV clerk, who deals with the DMV every day, got the license plate number for me even though the plates are not in my or the dealership's hands.
Another speedy way is to call DMV after about three weeks and give them the VIN. They will give you the plate number. You can then file the REG 1000 with the $8 and your HOV stickers will be on their way from CARB.

Kudos and gracias to Cheryl at Gardena Nissan. A fine place to buy your car with -1k off MSRP and NO GOUGING on orphans.

 

[greenleaf]

HOV EARLY TIP

I got my license number and filed for HOV within three weeks of getting the car.
My dealer DMV clerk, who deals with the DMV every day, got the license plate number for me even though the plates are not in my or the dealership's hands.
Another speedy way is to call DMV after about three weeks and give them the VIN. They will give you the plate number. You can then file the REG 1000 with the $8 and your HOV stickers will be on their way from CARB.

Kudos and gracias to Cheryl at Gardena Nissan. A fine place to buy your car with -1k off MSRP and NO GOUGING on orphans.

I think many people have reported this -- that you can submit the HOV papers as soon as the car is purchased and you have the VIN. Just leave the license number field empty.

This is what I did and I received the HOV stickers about 2 to 3 weeks after receiving the license plates.

 

[thankyouOB]

HOV EARLY TIP

I got my license number and filed for HOV within three weeks of getting the car.
My dealer DMV clerk, who deals with the DMV every day, got the license plate number for me even though the plates are not in my or the dealership's hands.
Another speedy way is to call DMV after about three weeks and give them the VIN. They will give you the plate number. You can then file the REG 1000 with the $8 and your HOV stickers will be on their way from CARB.

Kudos and gracias to Cheryl at Gardena Nissan. A fine place to buy your car with -1k off MSRP and NO GOUGING on orphans.

I think many people have reported this -- that you can submit the HOV papers as soon as the car is purchased and you have the VIN. Just leave the license number field empty.

This is what I did and I received the HOV stickers about 2 to 3 weeks after receiving the license plates.

yes, I read that. but thanks for letting me know.

I do not think it was reported that consistently DMV held onto your hopeful app if no plates or plate number were issued yet.
I thought some got back their applications. maybe it is clerk variation.