L.A. Times: Gov. Backs Hybrids in State's Carpool Lane

Here is the text:

Gov. Backs Hybrids in State's Carpool Lanes
By Sara Lin
Times Staff Writer

April 9, 2004

The administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday endorsed new legislation that would allow solo drivers in hybrid electric vehicles to use carpool lanes, saying the measure would help reduce air pollution and encourage energy independence.

Standing outside the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, with the San Diego Freeway as a backdrop, state Treasurer Phil Angelides and California Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Terry Tamminen also voiced support for the bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills).

"At a time of record gas prices, this reminds Californians that there are smart ways in which they can cut their gasoline bills," Angelides said.

Current law limits carpool lane access to vehicles carrying two or more people, motorcycles, and zero-emission cars such as electric and compressed natural gas cars. Hybrid vehicles have a gasoline engine with an electric motor.

Administration officials say the governor supports the bill, which they said represents the first step toward achieving his vision of a "hydrogen highway" in which cars would be powered by hydrogen rather than petroleum. Schwarzenegger has promised to convert his own fleet of Hummers to run on hydrogen.

"His support of this bill is saying that he believes in this technology and he knows how important it is," said Michele St. Martin, a spokeswoman for Cal-EPA.

To show his support for fuel-efficient technologies, Schwarzenegger on March 30 climbed behind the wheel of a new hybrid diesel FedEx delivery truck — one of hundreds that will eventually replace the company's current diesel fleet.

The bill will be considered by the Legislature for the first time Monday when the Assembly Transportation Committee begins hearings. If passed, the legislation would allow hybrid cars that achieve at least 45 miles per gallon and meet strict emission standards to travel in carpool lanes. The legislation would require a federal waiver called for in a transportation bill now before Congress.

Cars currently on the market that meet the standards called for in the state proposal include the Honda Insight, Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius. Other companies have announced plans to make hybrid sport utility vehicles.

Drivers with eligible cars would obtain a "Clean Air Vehicle" sticker from the Department of Motor Vehicles. The bill would limit the number of decals that could be given out to 75,000.

California has 1,112 miles of carpool lanes, roughly 40% of the nation's total. The state hopes to add about 1,045 more miles of carpool lanes by 2030, state officials say.

Hybrid cars appear to be gaining in popularity, said Michael Love, national regulatory affairs manager for Toyota. Buyers in California have to wait at least three months for its 2004 Prius. As of October, there were an estimated 20,000 hybrid cars in California.

Pavley and Angelides noted that they both own hybrid cars. Said Pavley: "If it means you only go to gas station half as often, that's a good thing."

 

Ok, who here waited 3 months for their Prius? I waited 6!!!

 

Looks bad for us Prius owners hoping to use the high occupancy lanes on freeways. Listening to PBS this morning there appears to be growing opposition to the idea. Legislators express the expectancy that within just a few years many vehicles will be hybrids and the lanes will be over crowded with no benifit to anyone. :lol: If we want to get the HOV lanes we're going to have to discourge people from coming over to our side. Another benefit that turned out too good to be true. Whatshisname

 

The text of the bill also states that the exemption for hybrid vehicles will expire in 2008 unless further legislation is enacted to extend it, so if the HOV lanes are becoming too crowded from hybrid use (we should be so lucky to see that day), the playing field is once again leveled in 2008. Seems fair to me.

My one question is whether there should be a lower mpg requirement for SUV hybrids to encourage SUV die-hards to switch over to hybrids.... who knows maybe just the gas savings will be enough incentive for them at a time when gas is over $2 a gallon and non-hybrid SUV's get 7-12 mpg.

 

There's nobody more hopeful than I that our hybrids utimately qualify for absolute use of the state's HOV lanes and at first it looked like that was going to happen, but now I'm not so sure. There is opposition to the idea and it wouldn't surprise me if we learn it is being generated by the mass transportation lobbyists. After all, it was their activity in the beginning that got us the HOV lanes in the first place. Notice how the buses, not always full, go speeding by while the rest of us poke along. Sure it's comforting to know our Prii aren't hurting the environment as much as the others, but we're still poking along. Perhaps striving for a different benefit might be more easily attained. Bonuses? Reduced fees or taxes? Extended removal from smog inspection schedules? You have to watch out for those lobbyists. They're tricky. Whatshisname. :flame:

 

I've commented on this before: The whole issue turns on what you figure the purpose of the HOV lanes is. If it is to get people to leave their car at home and car-pool to reduce traffic, then there is no justification for an exemption for hybrids. If it is to reduce total smog-production, then the HOV lanes should be open to the most-polluting cars, so as to get them where they're going sooner. If the HOV lanes exist only to provide an incentive for people to buy SULEV cars, it is self-defeating, because the incentive is reduced to nil once enough people have been influenced by it and there are so many SULEV cars that the HOV lanes become as congested as the regular lanes.

I always thought that the real purpose of these lanes was to get people to leave their cars at home and car-pool to reduce congestion because the freeways had turned into parking lots.

But then, I doubt the sanity of anyone who would live in California.

 

These ultra low emission vehicles are not the most comfortable or "cushy" vehicles we could have purchased. They are however, the best way the public can demonstrate and act to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and reduce pollution. Since that is the ultimate goal of the HOV lanes, to reduce congestion and thereby reduce pollution, it not unreasonable to ask that the owners of these small moderately uncomfortable, but fuel efficient and ultra low polluting vehicles be allowed the convenience of the HOV lanes.
It is in the bill that the HOV exemption will "sunset" in 2008. As well as having a limit of 75,000 vehicles. It is doubtfull the hybrids made this year and before plus the AT-PZEV vehicles, which there are few out there, will clog up the HOV lanes in either case, by 2008 or if all 75,000 permits are given out.
We'll just have to wait and see who has the stronger lobby. The tree huggers or the transportation authority. The tree huggers are getting pretty loud these days and Arnold is in favor of it. That's enough for me!

Mike

 

Agreed -- that's what I understand the purpose is for the Seattle HOVs. And given that, if they were to ask me to vote to make the WA HOV lanes open to hybrids, I'd vote no.

I ride a vanpool to and from work, with 4-10 people every day. Before that, I was in a carpool with 3 people. I ride about 4 days a week on average.

That's a lot less cars on the highway every day -- making for less congestion, and (to some degree) less emissions. Both are benefits to everyone -- including the people who can't use a vanpool or carpool (whether they're in a hybrid or not.) I think allowing single drivers in hybrids access to the HOV lanes is the lesser of two benefits.

I would like to see things done to encourage hybrid purchasing (particularly after my Prius arrives ); I think the CA bill's provision that you need a higher MPG rating than an SUV hybrid is a good thing to include in other bills. Also, if Ford or GM ever starts making hybrid vans, I'd vote to move the Metro and Community Transit fleets over to these vans.

 

Uncomfortable??????? The Prius is the most comfortable car I've ever owned. You'd have to pay $40,000 to get noticeably more comfort than this car. Not buyig a Lexus is hardly a sacrifice!

In fact, I am sufficiently hypocritical that I was not willing to buy a hybrid when the choices were an Insight or a Classic Prius. The Kermit factor certainly entered into my thinking, but you'd have to be making 100 grand a year before the Prius starts looking like a sacrifice. This car makes no compromises, and they'd still sell every Prius they could make even if it were totally banned from the HOV lanes.

In short, the Prius sells itself, and as an incentive to buy one, HOV-lane permits will have no effect whatsoever. Unless maybe to make the waiting lists just a wee bit longer.

But then, where I live, it takes about 5 minutes to get all the way through town on the freeway, north-south, from open country to open country, and maybe 10 minutes east-west due to the adjoining towns of West Fargo and Moorhead, MN.

 

LOL! Daniel, there are several HOV lane stretches around my part of the country where the number two and three lanes can be running between five and twenty mph, and the HOV lane (#1 lane) is somewhere between empty and speed limit +10mph. if allowing hybrids into the HOV lanes filled them up, where would they be coming from? many of the single-passenger cars in the #2 and #3 lanes! that would better balance the load across all of the lanes and ALL traffic would move faster.... (duh?), but again, most of the arguments are religious, and few ask the rational questions, as you do, of "well, why do we have them in the first place, or have we forgotten?"

filling up the HOV lanes with hybrids putting out 1/10th the pollution of the cars in the other two lanes? i, for one, can live very happily with that...

we'll see what happens..... fer shure, dewd!

oh, ps...
i think my '79 Taurus was roomier and smoother riding than the Prius, but it averaged only about 20-22 mpg, and maybe 27 highway. i sold it in January and ordered a Prius.

 

The governor of CA drives a whole fleet of Hummers but wants to let hybrids into the HOV lanes? Is there something wrong with this picture?

And I still say that the way to reduce pollution is to let the worst polluters get where they're going and off the road faster. Or outlaw them completely.

And I repeat that it serves no purpose whatsoever to give incentives for buying a car that is already so much in demand that there is a 6-month to one-year waiting list to buy one. You could give a 99% tax credit, and there would not be one additional Prius on the road, because every Prius made is sold six months to a year before it rolls off the assembly line.

 

While one of the side benefits of HOV lanes was to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads, the HOV lanes were actually built with Federal Funds allocated to meet the Clean Air Act, that is, to reduce pollution! The Prius and Honda Hybrids, all of which are at least SULEV and in the case of the '04 Prius, AT-PZEV, reduce pollutants as significantly as reducing the number of average cars in half! That is the main reason behind AB2628. Furthermore, most HOV lanes are underutilized. Allowing a very few more cars into them for the right reasons (rather than making them available to drivers who BUY stickers) helps overall congestion AND the environment. Interestingly one of the main groups opposing AB2628 in the Bay Area Transportation Commission, which wants to sell stickers for single occupant use! Seems like its all about the money, not the environment or the traffic issues after all.

 

"And I repeat that it serves no purpose whatsoever to give incentives for buying a car that is already so much in demand that there is a 6-month to one-year waiting list to buy one. You could give a 99% tax credit, and there would not be one additional Prius on the road, because every Prius made is sold six months to a year before it rolls off the assembly line."



I think the incentive is for others to buy ANY hybrid as a step in the right direction. Multiple commuters (not just passengers) is obviously the best use of the lanes, but given that that effort is essentially a failure, what is next best. The counterargument is that everyone paid for the lanes, so should be able to use them. That seems like a missed opportunity to do something good, but keeping the lanes empty is NOT the objective. This bill seems like an intelligent halfway house to incentivize the masses.

 

From the perspective of Fargo, ND, where the traffic jam from Hell is one that delays you five minutes getting to your destination and where nothing is ever more than 20 minutes away, it really looks to me as though this is just special-interest groups squabbling with each other. Hybrid owners want the HOV lanes opened up to them; people who can afford it want to be able to buy an HOV pass; and presumably people who actually car-pool or take the bus want no exemptions to be made.

The only argument that actually makes any sense is the fellow (plusaf?) who argues that restricting one lane to any specific group merely creates an artificial bottleneck and slows everybody down.

Maybe the real solution would be to deport 3/4 of L.A. (or better yet, 3/4 of CA) to the Amazon.