Is this it?
Posted on 11/01/2005 8:00:42 AM PST by SmithL
WHEN FEDERAL RULES changed in August to allow California owners of high-mileage low-emitting hybrid cars -- the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid and some Honda Insights -- to drive solo in high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, there was joy in hybrid land. That joy, alas, turned into outrage at how ugly the oversized puke-colored decals are.
Ugly is the least of it. Here in the Bay Area, where hybrid car owners have to wend their way through two bureaucracies -- the DMV and FasTrak hell -- many hybrid owners are still waiting for the ugly puke-colored stickers.
Assembly member Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills (Los Angeles County), who wrote the hybrid/HOV bill, has written to officialdom in hopes of a decal makeover. Some believe they're ugly for a reason -- a plot by SUV owners or oil companies is suspected. No, insiders tell me: The California Highway Patrol demands big stickers because they're easy for officers to see. Ditto drivers stuck in slow-moving traffic, who might spy lone drivers in the HOV lane and, if they don't notice the hybrid decals, get ideas about cheating.
You can blame the Metropolitan Transportation Commission for the decal delay -- or thank the MTC, if you don't own a hybrid. At first, the MTC opposed Pavley's plans to reward hybrid owners with access to the HOV lanes -- because HOV lane drivers pay no tolls. Fearing it would lose millions in bridge-toll revenues from low-occupancy hybrids, the MTC proposed that hybrid owners could drive in Bay Area HOV lanes, but still would have to pay tolls. A compromise was born. The bill passed.
As a result, hybrid owners have to get a special transponder that sends a signal in HOV lanes to charge the toll. Even if you don't drive across the bridges,...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Big whup. Don't like the decal, don't drive in the HOV.
I want an SUV lane...damn it!!!!!!
DRILL ANWR!!!!
Gotta remember, this is San Francisco, where everyone (other than conservative white males or conservatives in general) have a right to not be offended. How dare the government put an ugly sticker on their precious hybrids?
Who needs a decal? Anyone can spot a hybrid, by how boxy and geeky they are.
Because at $6 it should come in a 50 gallon drum.
If there are two vehicles: a low-emission vehicle and a regular (higher emission) vehicle, wouldn't you want the low-emission vehicle to be the one sitting in traffic? Don't these hybrids shut-off the I.C. engine when stopped, making them the ideal cars (from a pollution point of view) to be stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic jams?
I bought it a 4X4 back in 1999....it go off road hunting...take back roads etc....
all of a sudden I found out that the yuppies decided to rename it an SUV. I use that name so others can understand what I have, when I mention it, but I never call it that myself normally.
ps, Soccer is a commie pinko sport, so my particular vehicle could never be a Soccer mom truck even if my wife drives my kids around in it.
Is this it?
Fearing it would lose millions in bridge-toll revenues from low-occupancy hybrids
Since this is about a governmental agency taking money out of people's pockets, the solution is simple, get rid of the MTC and the toll roads.
It'll cut the funds used to line political pockets and ensure equality for all drivers.
I reveived my decals 6 weeks ago and still can't bring myself to apply them; the front and rear bumper ones are discreet enough, but the other two!
Huge and ugly, they are to be applied to both sides along the rear lower "fenders" area of the car. I am looking for a way to attach the decals only when needed.
Another factor that makes one reticent (if not outright paranoid): road rage. Sickos also commute, and I predict regular vandalism to vehicles displaying this sticker, particularly in large public parking lots such as BART's.
Go to your room!
You may come back when you can behave in a civilized manner.
I own a Prius, but rarely use the freeway. I don't need the stickers, but if I put them on...I would put the stickers on magnets...not sure that is possible, but it is one solution. They are an eyesore.
A 4X4 with mud on it? I don't understand.
Because of the many fat gluttonous Americans who are in the car. :-)
MAGNETS!!!
Love to see Libs tie themselves up in knots with their PC BS.
Good one!
I have seen this since the beginning of the process (and I have my stickers, just haven't applied them).
What is never discussed at all is, if I'm not from one of those counties, and still have the stickers on my car, am I prohibited from using the HOV lanes in the counties listed?
I don't need no stinkin' transponder!!
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