TomT said:
GRA said:
I've been ambivalent at best about handing out SO HOV lane stickers for just the reasons cited in this study (via GCC):
That is one of the reasons why I believe that only vehicles with no ICE of any kind should receive stickers...
It's the reason why I've been against giving them to any vehicles with only an SO but understood the need to provide a perk to get a fair number of PEVs on the road, and was against extending the period from 1/1/15 to 1/1/19 or granting any more green
or white stickers. I could have seen 1/1/17, but an extra four years added to the first four was just too much.
OTOH, contrarian greens like David Owen hold that congestion is actually good, because the more awful you make car commutes the more likely that people will choose to live where they can walk/bike/use transit for their commute instead of using a car, shrinking VMT and reducing the societal costs that come with cars, while simultaneously increasing support for those other modes.
So, even though I don't have to commute in a car myself, I've always been conflicted about the stickers. There's no question at all that for SO PEVs to provide the biggest pollution/energy/GHG benefit they should be in stop and go traffic rather than cruising in an HOV lane. But they also needed to be encouraged early on to reach something approaching critical mass. I think they're just about there and will be when the 2nd gen. arrives, at which point I think they should be able to stand on their own without the HOV perk, which is worth far more to the average PEV owner (given their above average incomes) than the $1,500 or $2,500 Ca. rebate, and probably more than the fed. tax credit too.
I do think that Californians should be given a choice starting ASAP: either the HOV perk OR the rebate, but not both. I have no doubt that any SO commuter who uses an HOV lane will opt for the perk.