California extends unrestricted use of carpool lanes by EVs until 2015, removes hybrids
California has nearly 1,300 miles of carpool lanes that are typically reserved for drivers willing to tote a bunch of friends along for the ride. Recently, the state opened carpool lanes to drivers of super-ultra-low-emissions vehicles (SULEV), ultra-low-emissions vehicles (ULEV) and inherently low-emissions vehicles (such as EVs). The access to carpool lanes for these "clean" vehicles was set to expire in 2011, but with a swipe of his hand, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed off on legislation that would extend carpool lane usage for the vehicles types listed above until 2015.
Somehow, the legislation was written up to exclude the extension on hybrids such as the Toyota Prius, Honda Insight and Civic. Therefore, access to carpool lanes for hybrid vehicles will expire at the end of this year. As expected, this decision has caused quite the uproar... especially from the 85,000 ex-qualifying hybrid owners in California, no doubt.
Some may see it as unfair that drivers of "clean" vehicles get unrestricted use of carpool lanes regardless of the number of passengers on board, but the state of California views it as yet another way to entice car shoppers to choose highly-efficient vehicles. We can't really say that we agree with the plan, but with California's notoriously congested traffic, use of the carpool lane could turn out to be a strong selling point for EVs.
For what it's worth, there is a separate bill (SB 535) that has not yet been signed into law that would extend HOV lane use to plug-in hybrids as well. See the full text of California AB 1500 here.
[Source: The Car Connection | Image: Mlinksva - C.C. License 2.0]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
BlackbirdHighway 3:25PM (7/09/2010)
Confused I am. The Prius and Insight are classified as SULEVs? By not specifically including hybrids maybe they are just trying to weed out things like the Tahoe hybrid.
Although a Tahoe with 7 people is probably lower emissions per people-mile than a Prius with a sole occupant.
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e85evodude 3:29PM (7/09/2010)
Tahoe hybrid cannot get one of those stickers here in California. I believe the car had to get a minimum of 45mpg and by a hybrid to get the sticker.
paulwesterberg 3:47PM (7/09/2010)
A Tahoe hybrid with 2 people qualifies for the carpool lane.
You can ride in the carpool lane if:
- You have more than one person in the vehicle.
- Or You have a special California carpool sticker issued to new low emissions vehicles.
why not the LS2LS7? 3:55PM (7/09/2010)
There was a special list of cars that qualified. Tahoe Hybrids didn't exist at the time so it never came up. There were LNG Tahoes and Escalades that qualified though.
e85evodude 3:26PM (7/09/2010)
Good!! I suspect there will be a lot of Priuss and civics dumped early next year as they no longer can provide the benefits they were purchased for. As a daily car pool driver, seeing these cars angers me as they are always driving the same speed as the non car pool lane, not noticing that there is nobody for miles in front of them. These cars get good mileage around town, but not so good on the freeway when they are cruising at 75 or 80.
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paulwesterberg 3:49PM (7/09/2010)
You think that leaf drivers are going to be in a big hurry to waste their limited range by exceeding the speed limit?
Middle Way 3:57PM (7/09/2010)
yeah, that's gonna be a problem.. hypermiling/driving slowly in the carpool lane... O_O
e85evodude 4:15PM (7/09/2010)
Leafs.... I just wish we taught and enforced some type of lane discipline here in the USA. Cant we give people tickets for impeding traffic when they are driving 60mph in the far left lane, and everyone else in the other lanes are going 70mph (speed limit)
Larzen 5:14PM (7/09/2010)
Yup, scary.
Larzen 5:17PM (7/09/2010)
The more Priuses dumped, the bigger pool for those who need to buy
and older Prius to convert to Plug-in.
http://www.calcars.org
evnow 7:20PM (7/09/2010)
@e85evodude "Leafs.... I just wish we taught and enforced some type of lane discipline here in the USA. Cant we give people tickets for impeding traffic when they are driving 60mph in the far left lane, and everyone else in the other lanes are going 70mph (speed limit)"
LOL. SO now you want to give tickets to people who drive at less than Maximum speed ? This addiction to speed needs to be killed.
Infact the single biggest way to reduce oil consumption is to make 40mph has the maximum speed everywhere.
Middle Way 8:19PM (7/09/2010)
yeah.. 40mph and drive in 3rd and 4th gear. That'll save oil!
Satn 3:55AM (7/10/2010)
The HOV lane isn't a passing lane, even though it's on the left side of the road, so the drivers shouldn't be speeding because some idiot behind them wants to drive 90.
morganw 3:44PM (7/09/2010)
That's SULEV for tailpipe *and* ILEV for evap. according to
http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_1451-1500/ab_1500_bill_20100622_enrolled.html
and
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/vr/decal.htm
There are a lot of gasoline SULEVs, even V6s and the Prius & both Insights are SULEV, but they don't qualify.
**Inherently** low evaporative emissions is different than PZEV gasoline cars that need sealed tanks, evap. recirculation and charcoal canisters. Inherently means that if all that tech is removed, there are still low evaporative emissions.
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Dan Frederiksen 3:46PM (7/09/2010)
the right thing to do. the prius is a dead end as I've been saying. it's a gas car only and as such is not part of the solution.
battery drive has to be key. BEVs and REEVs only
easy way to fix global warming, peak oil and energy security. (the last part is mostly nonsense but if it will get the right wing retards to move I'm ok with it :)
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Middle Way 3:58PM (7/09/2010)
I don't think you've ever said that before.
Dan Frederiksen 8:43PM (7/09/2010)
you blame me for helping the world
why not the LS2LS7? 3:57PM (7/09/2010)
PHEVs shouldn't be allowed in because they are always burning gas, just less of it. EREVs maybe should be allowed in on electric, but since you can't tell whether they are running on gas or electric from a distance enforcement would be impossible. So might just have to keep them out too.
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usbseawolf2000 11:04PM (7/09/2010)
RE-EV is a type of Plugin Hybrid according to SAE.
Andy 4:30PM (7/09/2010)
Good. The HOV privilege should be time limited anyway e.g. the first few years of ownership. The original Priuses have already had a good run in the car-pool lanes. Time for them to move over and make room for increasingly greener vehicles. Also, only the first few thousand buyers (50,000?) were given stickers. Later buyers never got stickers while the original buyers continued capitalizing on the access decal. That decal substantively increased the resale value of those first cars by several thousand dollars which hardly seems like the intent of the privilege.
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