+California Carpool Lane Bill Ends Priveledge For Single-Occupant Hybrids
By John O'Dell July 8, 2010When we reported Wednesday that California's governor had signed into law a five-year extension of single-occupancy carpool lane privileges to drivers of certain types of clean emissions cars, we didn't make clear that the extension doesn' t apply to the 85,000 Toyota Prius and Honda Civic and Insight (the original two-seater) hybrid owners who've been able to drive solo in the restricted lanes for several years now.
The hybrids, whose yellow "California Clean Air Vehicle" stickers permit single-occupant access to the state's High-Occupancy Vehicle Lanes, will lose that privilege when the stickers expire at midnight, Dec. 31 this year.
The new measure, Assembly Bill 1500, extends HOV lane access to Dec. 31, 2015 for single occupant vehicles that qualify for the state's white Clean Air Vehicle sticker - one reserved for electric cars and super-clean vehicles such as those running on natural gas or hydrogen (fuel-cell electric vehicles such as Honda's FCX Clarity and Chevrolet's Equinox FCEV).
A separate bill still under consideration in the state legislature, Senate Bill 535, would extend carpool lane priveleges to plug-in hybrids such as the upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Volt and 212 Toyota Prius PHEV.
Taking away conventional hybrids' solo HOV privilege is going to make 85,000 people unhappy, but AB 1500 will create room in the already often-congested lanes for cleaner and more-efficient vehicles.
And that will create an additional incentive for potential buyers of the vehicles - which is the whole idea.
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Going to be a lot of people buying Leaf and Civic GXs soon.
Air Resources Board reports an extension for yellow stickers until 7/1/2011:
"Yellow Clean Air Vehicle Stickers were limited to the first 85,000 applicants of qualifying hybrids. This limit has been reached and there will be no more yellow stickers issued. The expiration date for the yellow stickers has been extended until July 1, 2011. Hybrid vehicles shaded below in yellow are the only models that qualified and there will be no further models added. Any new applications for yellow Clean Air Vehicle stickers will be rejected."
http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/carpool/carpool.htm
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