Back-seat driver: Hybrids and carpool lanes: No deal in sight Sacramento Bee By Tony Bizjak -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Monday, August 8, 2005 Story appeared in Metro section, Page B2 Get weekday updates of Sacramento Bee headlines and breaking news. Sign up here. Will solo drivers in hybrid vehicles be allowed in carpool lanes, ever? It's getting to be a cruel joke. California legislators said yes eight months ago. But the necessary congressional approval got delayed. Congress appeared to say yes two weeks ago, but the exact wording of the federal bill, it turns out, is ambiguous. California Air Resources Board attorneys supposedly are trying to sort things out, but after a week of sorting, the air board isn't saying much. And the person whose idea it was, Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, apparently has been left hanging. Said air board spokeswoman Gennet Paauwe on Friday: "We don't have an answer yet. We know the urgency of this. We are getting a lot of calls." http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/1...-14217986c.html Use Bugmenot.com to get a sign-in.
The DMV has started accepting applications for certain hybrids (Prius, Insight, Civic). Go to http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/carpool/carpool.htm for information and link to the DMV application.
Also, for those of us in the SF Bay area, FasTrack has started accepting applications for and issuing a "special" hybrid transponder. Its from a number group that will be identified as hybrid vehicle so when you use the HOV lane you will get charged the bridge toll if there is only one person in the car. If you have enogh people in the car to drive the HOV lane then you are suppose to put the transponder in its "plastic" bag so it cannot be read. You MUST have a FasTrack receipt for a Hybrid Account to send to the DMV before your (ugly) HOV sticker will be issued.
The magic lane cameras that snap the picture of ever car that goes through a toll gate. "Smile, you're on FasTrack Camera."
So what about the Prius that are not registered in the Bay Area? How would they know that you don't have a small child in the back and qualify to cross anyway? I think they want to try and count how much usage it has and thus how much it is costing them to allow hybrids across free.
