Plug-in California Single Occupant Carpool Lane Use Stickers

There is not one mile of HOV lane in MS (although it goes up to the border in TN, 5 lanes to 2 ) so no stickers for us!

 

Here in California the primary purpose of the carpool lane is to reduce pollution not congestion. When they threw the Prius out of the carpool lane something interesting happened. As you might have expected the main lanes slowed down, but the carpool lane slowed down too so nobody benefited from the Prius no longer being allowed in the carpool lane.

Allowing low polluting vehicles into the carpool lane supports the reduction of pollution idea, HOT lanes are just a way to grab more revenue without calling it a tax. Since raising taxes is political suicide we are begining to see lots of taxes desguiesed as Fees.

 

That's because Prius drives smoother and ease off on the breaks. The drivers are more intelligent and plan ahead.

 

Actually since the main lanes slowed down with all the Prii in them, the carpool lane also slowed down (guess they missed us) but it was really because cars exiting the carpool lane had a harder time getting back into traffic which then slowed down the carpool lane.

 

I wonder when the general public will wake up and realize that the PIP will get back into the carpool lane- probably when they first start showing up in numbers and using the carpool lane with the GREEN (read Green with Envy) stickers....

 

I read that same news article, but from personal experience I think it's bogus. I am regularly using the HOV lane on I-880 in the Bay Area (a regular carpool with 2 people) which is one of the most congested freeways.
What happened from my view is that the end of the HOV access coincided with a significant jobs uptick in Silicon Valley/San Jose. The lane is just completely packed with cars during commute hours, same as the regular lanes. Cars entering/exiting the HOV lane don't make any difference.

 

When you're in charge, you can make the rules. But don't go putting words in my mouth because that's bulls**t.

If you want to reduce pollution, you'd put the biggest polluters in the fast lane, to get them off the road sooner. The Prius pollutes less than other cars, so there's no pollution reason to get them off the road faster.

It always amuses me how people can justify giving themselves special privileges. Prius owners say "I should be allowed in the fast lane because I drive a low-polluting car," or "I should get a tax break because I drive a low-polluting car." There were even a few, back in the early days, who claimed they should be allowed to park in EV-only parking spaces because the Prius is gas-electric. That last didn't get too much of a following because even most Prius drivers realized that getting 100% of their energy from gas pretty much disqualified them from claiming the right to park by the public charging spots.

At a time when Toyota couldn't crank out Priuses fast enough, and waiting lists were six to eight months long, the government was giving tax incentives to buyers, and Prius buyers were insisting this was a good and noble thing.

 

How does Fast Track work?

 

You get a transponder from the company that runs the toll lanes. When you pass throught the toll station it reads the code from the transponder and automatically charges your account for the trip. You don't even need to slow down.

 

Yes, encouraging people to buy and drive the least fuel efficient most polluting car they can is a really good way to improve air quality.

On the other hand, if I can get another 75,000 people to drive a car with with very low emissions letting them get into an HOV lane that has capacity I will surely improve things much more than just letting the gas guzzlers drive a little faster. Of course a good number of those people would buy the Prius anyway but here in California I would bet that at least 25,000 people bought a Prius just so they could use the carpool lane. It is a big part of the reason why the car was such a success

 

I saw some Fast Track / HOV lanes in Sacramento last week and was wondering how the system differentiates between the two types of vehicles. If you have FT and have multiple occupants in the car you still get charged for using the FT/HOV lane?

 

DANG!!! That Obama is the fastest highway builder in history!!

 

That's not entirely true. There's a third class of people who are single driver in ineligible vehicles who flaunt the HOV rules completely.

Also the aforementioned third-class can slow down the carpool lane by crossing the double yellow lines to enter. There's also the impatient and/or bad drivers who enter at the entrance, but do not wait for a opening in the carpool traffic.

 

But the "gotcha" is that if you qualify for the HOV lane due to having the required number of passengers, that you have to be sure to put your transponder into a mylar bag that blocks the signal, else you WILL get charged. A light will then flash to indicate non-payment, and a police officer, if present, will visually determine whether you have the required number of passengers, and pull you over for a $300+ ticket if you do not. If there is no officer present, you just got a free ride.

Someone asked the local newspaper road columnist (a big Prius fan, BTW) about what to do if they have the transponders permanently mounted on the outside of their car (some people have tinting on their glass that blocks the signal, so they cannot just mount it on their dash), and the answer was, basically, "you're screwed".

 

Here in SoCal you are screwed anyway since there is not free ride for carpoolers on either the toll roads or the fastrack lanes on the 91 freeway.

BTW the way the system works down here is that you can also register your licence plate so if you forget your transponder you don't get the ticket. From what I remember when the yellow stickers came out in some areas in NoCal you had to get the transponder to use things like the toll lanes on the Bay Bridge and the toll was basically set to zero for cars with the yellow stickers.

 

Works the same way here in NorCal with the license plates. If you go over a toll bridge such as the Bay Bridge (no free pass for carpoolers or the defunct yellow stickers), and the FastTrak is not noticed, then an automatic camera takes a picture of the license plate. If the plate has been associated with a FastTrak account, then the normal toll is deducted and that is the end of it, else a notice is sent by U.S. mail to the registered owner of the car, giving them a choice to pay the toll plus a service fee, or to set up a FastTrak account on the spot and have the toll deducted from it. FastTrak is a pre-pay system where tolls are deducted from your FastTrak account, and you can have a credit card replenish it.

The problem arises in the situations where carpoolers get a free ride, so the system cannot just automatically bill you if there is no transponder. That is still a manual process involving a police officer making a determination if you qualify as a carpool, either by having the required number of passengers, or displaying the appropriate HOV sticker.

 

Noel, I bet you that some people would buy a Sequoia if it got them into the HOV lanes. The traffic issues we deal with here on the 405 and 110 are awful some days. I have often said I'd even drive a ^%$*& Yaris if I could use the carpool lane.

 

How do you get an HOV sticker?

 

You apply to the Dept. of Motor Vehicles and pay a fee. Your vehicle must be on a list as qualifying for HOV lanes with only a single occupant.

 

From August 11, 2005 till they all ran out in fall 2006, then they were resurrected a month later and 10K stickers were added thru their sell out in late Feb 2007 ... one would send a document to the CA DMV with the form requested, needing the reg info ie. plate # and a check for $8.