Got my Va. Clean Fuel Plate!

We received our Clean Fuel Plates in the mail yesterday. They are pretty much the same thing as the HOV stickers in California. With Clean Fuel Plates, a person can use the HOV lanes in Virginia without having the otherwise-required number of people in the car. For our trip up and down I-95, HOV is HOV-3, three people total in the vehicle, with a few exceptions.

Not all Clean Fuel Plates are on hybrids. They apply to other vehicles using alternative (and clean) fuels like natural gas, electricity, etc. But the vast majority of Clean Fuel Plates are on hybrids.

When Virginia first started issuing Clean Fuel Plates, the tag numbers were four digits followed by CF (for Clean Fuel). So in theory there could be as many as 9,999 CF plates issued. Well, they ran out of CF plates, and started the numbering over again with CX. Our plate is in the 8700 range of CX. That means that there are probably some 18,000 Virginia Clean Fuel Plates, with the vast majority issued to hybrids, and the vast majority of hybrids registered in Northern Virginia.

According to various newspaper articles, the number one reason people in Northern Virginia give for buying hybrids is the ability to use the HOV lanes. I would think that given the current price of gas, reason number two - the high gas mileage - may be gaining on the ability to use the HOV lanes.

But the law is changing. As in California, there has been a backlash against allowing hybrids to use the HOV lanes. In Virginia, the HOV lanes were constructed primarily to relieve traffic congestion, not to improve the air quality (although that certainly is a good thing). And it's hard to say with a straight face that a hybrid with just the driver is a "high occupancy vehicle." But Virginia wanted to encourage the use of clean fuel vehicles, and passed a law saying that any vehicle that qualified for Clean Fuel Plates could use the HOV lanes, regardless of the number of people in the vehicle at the time.

This exception to High Occupancy was due to expire July 1 of this year. The legislature and the governor agreed to extend the exception for one more year, until July 1, 2007. But for people using the I-95 HOV lanes like me, there's a kicker. Applications for Clean Fuel Plates received by DMV after July 1, 2006 will be filled with Clean Fuel Plates of a "distinctively different" design, and cars with those new Clean Fuel Pates will NOT be allowed to use the I-95 HOV lanes unless they have three or more people.

This effectively caps the number of clean fuel vehicles in the I-95 HOV lanes at whatever number are registered as of this July 1st. The number of hybrids in the I-95 HOV lanes has increased tremendously over the last couple of years, while at the same time, due to rapid housing development south of D.C., the number of carpools, vanpools, and buses (and yes, cheaters) has also grown. The last number I saw said that hybrids were approximately one-quarter of all I-95 HOV traffic. Capping the number of hybrids MAY help slow the growth of I-95 HOV usage, so that traffic may continue to flow more or less smoothly.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(HokieHybrid @ May 5 2006, 08:12 AM) [snapback]250148[/snapback]</div>

Yeah, I'm guessing at the 25%. Actually, the number seems high to me, but in a report issued in January of 2005, it was stated that "Clean fuel special plate vehicles now comprise up to 19% of the volumes on the I-95 HOV lanes in the morning HOV restricted period..." Second Report of the High-Occupancy Vehicle Enforcement Task Force, January 4, 2005.

Since that report is almost 18 months old, the 25% figure might not be that far off.

We looked at personalized plates. They are available as Clean Fuel plates, but you only have 6 characters, and the wait can be up to two months. We didn't want to wait that long to be able to use the HOV lanes, since technically, the law says that it's not hybrids that can use the HOV lanes, but vehicles with Clean Fuel plates. I have seen non-Clean Fuel plated hybrids in the HOV lanes and I've never seen them pulled over, but again, technically, they shouldn't be in the HOV lanes.

And being impatient, I faxed the form to DMV as soon as I possibly could. The car was registered (with regular tags, through the dealer - I agree, it's a waste) on April 20th, I was told I could apply for Clean Fuel plates on or after April 27th, on the 27th I faxed in my application, and the plates were delivered on May 4th. Not bad for the DMV!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mbelofsky @ May 6 2006, 03:54 PM) [snapback]250803[/snapback]</div>

Yes, the dealer orders regular plates, sends you a postcard when they have arrived at the dealer, and with my dealer, I went over the next day to get them. And yes, my dealer also included the form needed for the Clean Fuel plates.

But, you can't get Clean Fuel plates at your local branch of DMV. This link will take you to a description of the process. "Only the DMV headquarters Special License Plates and Consignment Center can issue, reissue or transfer clean special fuel plates. These transactions cannot be conducted at a Customer Service Center, by a DMV Select agent or online dealer, or on the Internet."

Here's another link, this one to the form itself.

What I did was fill out the form as much as I could prior to getting the regular plates, then when the regular plates arrived filled in the title number (on the registration for the regular plates), and I faxed the form to DMV as the earliest possible time I could. My dealer let me know when I could fax the form in. In my case, our Prius was registered (regular plates) on April 20th. DMV says to allow 7 days for the title number to make it through their system. So the earliest I could fax in the form was April 27th, and I did. Our Clean Fuel plates were delivered via postal mail on May 4th.

Again from the DMV page, "The VSA 10 may be faxed to DMV at 804-367-1280."

And as far as I know, the Clean Fuel plate gets you on any HOV lanes in Virginia.

Oh, and I didn't use the form my dealer gave me, since they had incorrectly transcribed the VIN. You'll want to make sure all of the information on the form - whether you put it there or the dealer - is correct, or your Clean Fuel plates may be delayed. The form from the dealer was also an old, superseded form - the one online is the most recent version.