Hybrid Owners = Whiners
The L.A. Times reports:
They’re big. They’re ugly. They’re offensive. So say owners of the hybrid Toyota Prius — not about larger gas-guzzlers that hog the road but about the decals the state is handing out that allow hybrid owners to drive solo in carpool lanes.
Here is a typical clueless statement:
“All the HOV lanes are on the left-hand side of the roadways,” said Veronica Bach, a comedy cabaret performer who lives in Hollywood and has owned her burgundy Prius for three weeks. “Why should there even be any stickers on the left-hand side of the car?”
That would be so CHP officers camped out on the left shoulder can tell whether you’re violating the carpool lane rules, Ms. Bach. I see these officers every day on the 110. Just because you don’t understand the rule doesn’t mean there isn’t a good reason for it.
Or, you can fight the program and let every schmo on the road share the carpool lane with you — because the CHP won’t be able to enforce anything.
This is a bad idea to begin with. But if they’re going to implement it, this is the way they have to do it.
Prius owners are just upset because they all still have their Kerry/Edwards stickers. Some might have to finally peel them off.
It’s too bad the new sticker isn’t somehow a big “W”. Then we’d really see them whine.
Insider (8feb2b) — 8/26/2005 @ 3:24 amIf handing out stickers is an incentive to get people to buy Hybrids, they should be giving out stickers only to new buyers.
Shredstar (532850) — 8/26/2005 @ 6:38 amNow let’s think this Hybrid/HOV issue through. Hybrids burn more gas the more they drive – that is, actually move forward. And the converse is also true; they burn less gas sitting in stop and go traffic. So, isn’t allowing them into the HOV lanes bad for the environment?
MOG (4e39af) — 8/26/2005 @ 10:28 amIt makes more environmental sense to let the large SUV’s use the HOV lanes. Suburbans and the like burn more gas sitting in stop and go traffic. They get between 8 and 12 MPG sitting in traffic. But if they were allowed to use the HOV lanes they would get better mileage – true “highway mileage”.
So I say leave the hybrids in traffic and let the SUV’s use the HOV lanes.
A Jetta diesel recently got better mileage in a “real world test” than did the Prius.
bureaucrat (825e78) — 8/26/2005 @ 11:09 amAnd they are available used, for one-fifth the price of a new Prius. Brilliant point by MOG, who obviously has NO future in government.
California Hybrid Automobile Watch: Sticker Shock
Mitchell Rose holds the yellow stickers that hybrid owners must use to access carpool lanes. The decals, which are 7 by 3 inches and 5 by 2 inches in size, go on panels behind the rear wheels and on the bumpers.
FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog (baa0b4) — 8/26/2005 @ 3:27 pmSo, you wanted to buy a hybrid to driv…
I don’t care about the stickers, but the implementation detail which requires that hybrid owners who already have fasttrack transponders must get a DIFFERENT transponder prior to applying for the stickers is … bizarre and annoying.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 8/26/2005 @ 4:22 pmIIRC, the stickers are limited to 50,000 vehicles and the state has the right to stop the program if the HOV lanes get clogged with traffic, (or can stop them at specific locations).
The transponders are apparently because the bay bridge allows car poolers to drive across for free. However, the single occupant hybrids can’t cross for free. However, hybrids who are also car pooling can cross the bridge for free. As such, the hybrid owners need a special transponder that can be shielded so that they pay the toll when they are supposed to and not pay when appropriate.
Manish (1a4729) — 8/27/2005 @ 7:08 pmThese will go the way of the “baby on board” signs of 20 years ago. When everyone has one, what is the advantage.
bureaucrat (825e78) — 8/27/2005 @ 9:03 pm