Taking away those yellow HOV stickers? -- Hold on just a sec

Why?

LakeLeaf said:

Maybe we should put Prii back in the car pool lane!

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Better to just abandon the HOV lanes IMO.

No, we shouldn't.

This was actually a factor in my Leaf purchase.. I was at a point where I was "ok" with my commute, but then I knew that 85,000 vehicles were going to be pushed into the lanes that I travel in, making it even worse than what I was already dealing with. Eventually, the HOV lanes will be filled once again with 85,000 "solo-drivers" when more white and green stickers are handed back out and it'll be equalized once again. It just may take a while.

smkettner said:

Better to just abandon the HOV lanes IMO.

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you can do that yourself, very easily. give back your sticker.
but dont do it to those of us who want to HOV.

LakeLeaf said:

Maybe we should put Prii back in the car pool lane!

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Maybe the Prius crowd should start carpooling. Problem sloved.

jcesare said:

LakeLeaf said:

Maybe we should put Prii back in the car pool lane!

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Maybe the Prius crowd should start carpooling. Problem sloved.

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Or maybe the people that are complaining that their traffic got worse should start carpooling, especially since the carpool lane is now less clogged.

The concept of putting Priuses in the carpool lane was always bassackwards to me anyway. Hybrids get better mileage and pollute less in stop and go traffic, not in the (theoretically) faster and more constantly moving car pool lane... I know it was done to encourage there purchase and use but it always seemed like a very poor solution to enticement...

xtremeflyer said:

jcesare said:

LakeLeaf said:

Maybe we should put Prii back in the car pool lane!

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Maybe the Prius crowd should start carpooling. Problem sloved.

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Or maybe the people that are complaining that their traffic got worse should start carpooling, especially since the carpool lane is now less clogged.

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How dare you suggest that the car pool lane be used for what it was intended for.

jcesare said:

How dare you suggest that the car pool lane be used for what it was intended for.

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Let's be fair, the concept of an HOV lane was always an incentive, period.

Initially it was to incentivize folks to reduce congestion and pollution by carpooling; four people in a car means three less cars on the road. In California (and a few other places), it then became an incentive to reduce pollution either by carpooling (see above) or getting a low emissions vehicle.

I actually honestly wish they'd do that up here in Washington. We have some HOV lanes that require 3+ people in the car, which mean they almost never get used; many people will carpool with one other person, but finding a third person to carpool is very difficult.

Add to that the fact that there's a bunch of political fighting about EV owners not paying towards road maintenance. (In fairness, we aren't; road upkeep is paid for by gas taxes up here.) So they want to impose a $100/year fee on EV owners to help cover road maintenance. So I think they should just charge us $100/year for a special 'low/zero emission' plate that lets cars use the HOV lane; make the plate required for EVs (to make up for the gas taxes we don't pay), and make it optional for hybrids like the Prius (hey, extra money for highway upkeep; they want to use the carpool lane, they shell out $100/year to get the plates).

I'm sure there's lots of flaws that would be more apparent if I lived in California, but from a distance, and looking at our disused 3+ occupant HOV lanes and the arguments over lack of EV gas tax, I have to say there's a lot about California's system that looks feasible.