Why Priuses annoy me

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bluntguy @ May 24 2006, 05:17 PM) [snapback]260534[/snapback]</div>

Shawn, I have no issue with you or anyone else's opposing opinions. I only had issue with how you started this discussion. Given the target audience that you chose to open the discussion with, it's not suprising that some folks would look at your motives a little skeptically to say the least. Hence, my biker-bar analogy. I don't think anyone here has a problem debating viewpoints as long as their motives for doing so are genuine. FWIW, I think the discussion that has evolved here has been more than reasonable.

Cheers,

-- Ian

 

Bluntguy is just a rabel rouser trying to instigate. It's called jealousy-- don't mistake your projected smugness with someone elses smugness. Your just jealous- and thats okay- eventually it will make you a better person. Good luck.

 

So I wonder if you begrudge the people who have kids since it lets them use the carpool lane? Get over it. I'll wager that the majority of people using the carpool lane are there by happenstance, not because they purposefully get together in a carpool - which begs the question how much in the way of behavior change do they really cause anyway? If you analyzed the data, I bet you would find traffic would flow better and you would reduce pollution overall if you converted all of the carpool lanes to regular traffic lanes.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ May 22 2006, 10:19 PM) [snapback]259511[/snapback]</div>

There were plenty of guys around here who took full advantage of bush's increasing the deduction for gas guzzlers to $100,000, too. Businesses that I can't imagine would actually need an H2 were suddenly sporting their names on bright new ones: A dry cleaner, a window tinter, a florist, et al. H2s are everywhere around the Detroit area and a lot of them totally bought and paid for by the taxpayer while these gas guzzling clowns strut around in their little macho fantasies. And Prius owners are the smug ones with our little bitty $2000 tax deductions or $3100 tax credits? Actually, hummer drivers aren't exactly smug. Other words are more descriptive: jerk, as*hole, bully, thoughtless twit, selfish glutton, greedy clown, the epitomy of everything that makes the rest of the world despise Americans.

 

Here's my $0.02:

1) I think that since clean air is one of the reasons the HOV lanes exist, it's OK to allow cleaner vehicles to use the lane. Carpooling accomplishes the same goal, and is also OK. So should any other method (electric, monkey-powered, etc).

2) The hybrid bit of the law is a bit elitist to me. I think that you would reduce emissions more if the Toyota Echos you can get for $13k or so getting 42ish mpg could go in the lane - a whole lot more people can shell out for an Echo than a Prius, so more fuel would be saved! The govt. shouldn't promote how to reduce fuel usage, just a level of fuel usage below which you get the benefit.

3) Ironically, you could make the case that Prii shouldn't be allowed to go into the HOV lane, even with 2+ occupants, because they would emit less going slow. Hummers and Yukons should be able to go in the lane under all circumstances to get them off the road where their engines are off.

4) For the record, I bought my Prius before the law was even written. However, I have stickers and I like having them. I don't commute on the freeway, it's just the occasional drive I use them for.

=-VK

 

Well considering the fact that there are no HOV lanes in the entire state of Ohio, or Michigan that I am aware of, this does not appy to me... here in Northwest Ohio, we have I-75 that runs north south and it is just 2 lanes each way from Metro Dayton to Metro Toledo (about 90-100 miles) and thats more than enough capacity for the traffic we have here... From north of Dayton to Cincinnati it is 3 lanes and it is 4-5 lanes in Dayton, Cincy, and Toledo... none of the Super-freeways they have in SoCal here... thank god...

 

Queries: 1) How many miles of HOV lanes in CA? 2)How many cars use them? 3)What percentage of those cars are Hybrids?

3) cannot be a terribly large number, now can it?

And no, I do not see how you could demand HOV users have only licensed drivers. My mother does not now and has never had a license. When she and my father drive to work, should they not be allowed to use an HOV lane? When I am driving my kid and his friends to some function, should I not be allowed? Hell, I;d love to use public transit--I grew up in New York and Montreal which actually HAVE transit systems--but it just doesn't exist here in the boonies. The nearest bus stop to my home (not counting the pitiful Petaluma bus system, which has four circle bus routes--not point-to-point--CIRCLES, so you have to travel the whole route to get from point a to point b and back to point a, it doesn't run after about 5.30 pm on weekdays, and doesn't run at all on Sundays) is 1 mile away, and to get to or from San Francisco outside of commute hours takes about 90 minutes for 40 miles.

There are only about 15 miles of HOV lanes with which I am confronted with any regularity, but hell, yes, I will use them. Smug, ok, I'll take the label. And I'll go hug a tree after I park my car.

And I won't moan about getting stung if I poke a stick in a hornet's nest, either.

Hey BG, if you want to just have a discussion, try not starting with an inflammatory tone. You really did lose credibility before you started with this topic title on this board. Getting upset when you get stung (or flamed) is pretty much to be expected. All I can imagine is you enjoy stirring s**t, and then you can go off and do your superior dance when you get folks riled.

As it happens, it did turn into a pretty good discussion. I pretty much see that as us smug ones being much better behaved, as a LARGE group, than you are.

Actually, I don't think I am particularly smug--but you sure must be jealous of something to be spending as much of your time as you obviously have hanging out here, with a bunch of people you so dislike. Don't you have anything better to do at work? Just curious.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bluntguy @ May 22 2006, 10:24 AM) [snapback]259262[/snapback]</div>

If you really want to hate someone, hate the ones who are in the carpool lane with 1 occupant ... and aren't in a qualifying hybrid. I see bunches of those every day.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Iria @ Jun 4 2006, 05:32 PM) [snapback]265748[/snapback]</div>

Since we're based in CA, this is a hot topic for Toyota also. As of June 1, the CA DMV had issued close to 56,000 HOV stickers for qualified hybrid vehicles (against a little over 64,000 applications). If you're familiar with the law's provisions, at 50K stickers, CALTRANS was to begin a 90-180 day review period to determine if single-occupant HOV lanes had negatively impacted traffic congestion. If they find that it has--they can advise DMV to stop issuing any more HOV decals.

Without a finding of increased congestion in the CA HOV lanes, it seems likely that the DMV will issue the 75,000th set of HOV decals sometime late in 2006 (based on current rate), at which time the program will have reached its maximum allocation.