SF used to give stickers for hybrids to use the HOV lanes, and it used to pee me off because at the time I drove a golf TDI which got better real-world freeway mileage and polluted less (was running on biodiesel) and i did not qualify. They stopped giving out the stickers, however--i heard it was because people would drive their hybrids 55 in the carpool lane to maintain the best mileage and cause backups behind them.

One cool thing about CA: my friend who has a bike says that lane-splitting on a motorcycle is legal here

 

......One cool thing about CA: my friend who has a bike says that lane-splitting on a motorcycle is legal here

It's the ONLY state where it's legal!





:smartje.rd.zw: :RS-c.gl.zw: :smartje.wt.zw:

 

HOVs around Washington DC require knowledge of the various policies (I-66, 95/395, 270, etc...), each authorities involved having adopted different rules and schedules.

For those interested:
http://www.commuterpage.com/hov.htm

 

It's my understanding that in Phoenix you need a special permit to drive in HOV lanes with hybrid and that they have stopped issuing those permits.

 

Yes they stopped issuing those permits. Why I do not know.

Let the Smarty in the HOV lane.

 

For California.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING HYBRID VEHICLES:
Access for cleaner hybrid vehicles under this program was limited to the first 85,000 applicants. This limit has been reached and there are no further extensions of this program anticipated. Hybrid vehicles listed here are the only models that qualified and there will be no further updates to the hybrid vehicles listed below. This list is maintained for enforcement and reference purposes only and any new applications for HOV stickers for these vehicles will be rejected.


There's a list of qualifying vehicles for car pool lane use on the link.

 

AZ limited 10,000 special (cloud) plates for hybrid vechiles and they reached that number in June. Only the Honda and Toyota qualified and it is a test period. I agree that if they are going to let single occupant vehicles in the car pool lane (which they should not do, defeats purpose of lane) than it should be based on gas mileage not the fact that it is a hybrid. A big SUV hybrid will never get the mileage as our smarts will get even though they are not hybrids.

 

car pooling saves more gas than any hybrid ever will.
HOV lanes should seek to remove 2 or more additional cars from the roads by requiring 3 or more in a vehicle going to essentially the same place.
making allowances for M/C's, smarts, hybrids or anything else is pure silliness because unless they are also carrying 2 passengers, it's not high-occupancy.

100 extra hybrids on the road with 1 occupant in each is still 100 extra cars.
but 33 ford expeditions with 3 people in each is 66 less vehicles on the road.

 

It depends on the Lane itself. Here in the DC area you can get on HOV-2 if there are 2 in your smart. However, the one next to me is HOV-3. So I guess I'll never be using it.

But I agree it would be nice to get on. Technically here you're not supposed to be on HOV with your Hybrid if it was made after 2006, but the cops don't seem to enforce that one. They just seem to be looking for the non-Hybrids with not enough passengers. Personally I don't think it's very fair that some of the Hybrids such as a Lexis or Ford Escape gets to drive on the HOV and I don't when my smart gets better gas mileage.

 

Thanks for the replies.

My commute on the Freeway is 34 miles one way and I'm the only one driving. I have a flexable work schedule so car pooling with someone isn't really an option. I don't understand why they allow Hybrids in the HOV lane in the first place? Was it to push the sales of Hybrids and say "can be driving in the HOV lane".

David

 

I don't understand why they allow Hybrids in the HOV lane in the first place? Was it to push the sales of Hybrids and say "can be driving in the HOV lane".

David

That's exactly why.

 

As one rider with over 25 years of motorcycling, my opinion is that lane splitting is a very dangerous practice. I can understand why air cooled engines need to continue forward movement or overheat, however you do so at great risk while land splitting.
Dan

 

Motorcycle lane splitting in California is legal only under 25 Miles per hour. The law is designed to ensure air-cooled motorcycles don't overheat while idling in traffic. Unfortunately, most folks don't know about the 25 MPH limit!

 

Hybrids allowed in HOV [carpool] lanes...
I can't speak for anywhere other than California, but you can be sure that the mental midgets in Sacramento (of both parties) were well paid by Toyota and Honda to pass the exemption for single passenger hybrids in the HOV [carpool] lane. This is in spite of the original reason that the lane was set up...to decrease the number of vehicles on the Freeways. Money will always talk louder than common sense and CALTRANS' own engineers.

 

I know in NJ it used to be that to qualify for the HOV lane you had to have more than 50% of your vehicle seats occupied. (So, 3 for 4 or 5). A smart would qualify for that if you had both seats filled. I haven't lived there in a while though, and where I live there are no HOV lanes...

 

I could swear that I saw a sign posted on the hway that allowed me to take the smartie on an HOV lane in/around the tristate (NY, NJ, CT) area or somewhere north of it. Sorry I don't recall the location. I thought the sign said that any two-seaters were allowed, basically.

I eschewed the HOV lane bc I don't drive as fast as the few ppl who were in it that day and bc the regular traffic was light. I stuck to the slow lane as usual.

 

Since when did carpooling change from two to three people per vehicle? Where I lived it was always two.... sometimes you can't find three people to ride together, and two to a vehicle still cuts the number of cars in half, doesn't it?

Sheesh

 

You're right. Sometimes you can't always find a third person. That's when SLUGS come in handy.

About Slugging

The HOV-3 here in DC used to be HOV-4. I think the story goes something like people started driving by bus stops and offering people a ride into DC so they could take HOV. But they're working on putting in gawd awful HOT lanes. A Graduated Toll/HOV-3/Motorcycle lane.

 

You know, I got reamed big time when I brought this up earlier this year.

 

So far everyone has been nice about the topic.

Thanks for the replies.

 

California Yes!!



My husband and I have been in the car pool (HOV) lanes several times here in So. CA. But of course that meets the 2 or more people rule.

smartiePrincess :smartje.rd.zw: