Has anyone received a CA Green HOV Sticker yet?

...sounds like there is a back-up plan to allow just enough stickers to get to end of 2014?

 

Huh? No, they're all gone. And AB2013 in its current form won't take effect until Jan. 1, 2015.

So the current situation is no more stickers until then, unless there's a few left on dealers' lots.

 

Hmm...OK...that's what they said over at InsideEVs.com yesterday, but they took their article off-line now

 

Just to clarify, it is Toyota USA that is moving to Texas. Why would Tesla want to kill this bill? Does Elon Musk despise all vehicles that have a gasoline engine that much that he would want to hurt those that also plug in?

 

Right, Toyota moving to Texas might reduce the incentive of the bill's sponsor to push it. but that move doesn't affect Tesla.

As far as Tesla, that's just my off-the-cuff speculation that it would be in their corporate interest to make white stickers the only ones available. And the bill would also help sales of the REx model of the BMW i3; their BEV model is the only real competitor to Tesla at the moment.

But I think Musk has his heart in the right place. He just announced that in order to fight global warming, Tesla would not enforce their patents against other BEV manufacturers. So Tesla might sit on the sidelines on this one.

 

This recent article says there is a trailer bill on the budget bill to extend green stickers to YearEnd 2014.
Are we saying its dead already?
California One Step Closer To Issuing Green HOV Stickers Again

 

OK, my bad - I missed the trailer bill.

Yes, an Assembly Budget Subcommittee adopted "placeholder trailer bill language with a 10,000 sticker cap" on May 22. I don't know where to find further information on this.

But that and the article in insideevs.com seem to support that a deal has been cut. Maybe that's why the urgency provision was dropped from AB2013.

 

I'm not sure if this has already been addressed, but I haven't seen anything... Does it make sense to apply for the green stickers now to get in the queue, or will the application be sent back rejected? Based on the info available, I'm expecting more to be released in the near future, and want to get mine ASAP after release.

 

If I were you, I'd apply now. Best case scenario, they are keeping the applications in a queue, and you'll get your stickers once they release more. Worst case, you reapply down the road.

 

With the adoption of a California budget, it looks like 15,000 more green HOV stickers will be authorized shortly.

SB853 was adopted yesterday in the Senate and ordered to be sent to the governor. Among many other provisions, it increases the number of green stickers from 40,000 to 55,000. It appears to be a budget trailer bill and would take effect immediately on signing.

 

55,000 seems a more appropriate number.

 

15,000 or 40,000 it doesn't matter to me. the carpool lanes I use save me maybe 5 minutes in a 1 hour commute. They are clogged already.

 

I save only about 5 minutes on my drive home from work, but on my drive to work, my 50 mile drive is reduced from ~80-85 minutes down to 60 minutes.

It's not just a situation of "I have my sticker, don't crowd the lanes any more," my concern is if they fill the lanes too much with additional traffic and they become degraded according to federal standards (they no longer flow at over 45 mph 90% of the time), the state may need to revoke use of carpool lane stickers to all stickered cards to retain Federal Funding.

On the 16th page (IV-3) of the PDF at http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/traffops/trafmgmt/hov/files/FHWA_2008_HOV_Guidance.pdf, it reads:

If a State allows HOT or low emission and energy-efficient vehicles to use an HOV lane, and the lane becomes degraded, Section 166(d)(1)(C) requires the State to limit or discontinue the use of the lane by the number of HOT vehicles and/or low emission and energy-efficient vehicles necessary to bring the facility back to compliance or to take other actions that will quickly bring the operational performance up to the Federal standard. A showing that the HOT and low emission and energy-efficient vehicles caused the degradation is not required. The State has discretion in deciding which vehicles to limit or discontinue as well as the manner and means through which to do it. For example, the State may utilize a variety of options for improving the operation of its HOV facilities, such as improving enforcement, increasing the fuel economy percentages, increasing the occupancy requirements, establishing tolls, or varying the tolls by time of day or actual traffic conditions.​

 

+15,000 stickers should last until around January - February 2015?

Any other guesses?

 

I would assume it would be sooner assuming the i3 rex sales take off. But I guess that's supply side limited.

 

...believe the intent is stop-gap to get through 2014 and then for 2015 a revised bill AB2013 will lay out a longer term plan.

 

Good question. And the answer is, that depends.

So let me channel Nate Silver here for a bit. Before last September, when the dealer program started, about 40 stickers a day were being issued. I don't see the rate falling back that far, but if it did then the 55,000 limit would be reached around the middle of May 2015.

After the dealer program terminated and DMV more or less caught up, over the last four weeks before the 40,000 limit was reached, the rate was about 48 per day. That rate might have been boosted by buyers hoping to beat the cutoff, or decreased because of an excess of pre-stickered cars. But if that turns out to be the rate going forward, the new Doomsday would be mid-March.

Hopefully, plug-in hybrid sales will increase, so it might be a bit sooner, in line with your January - February guess.

So I'll just say some time in the first third of 2015.

(If the dealer program were reinstated, which is unlikely, we'd be looking at early November 2014. That's because not all buyers of eligible cars apply for stickers, but participating dealers will sticker all cars.)

 

I bought my 2014 PIP in end of April and send in my application first week of May. Nothing happen until last week... DMV cashed my check for $8 last Friday 4/27/2014!

Does this mean my HOV stickers are coming?

 

Yup, congrats.

 

I thought they are out of stickers... I have a friend that send in his a couple of weeks before me and he got his a long time ago, mid may I remember.