Posted on 01/03/2005 7:33:43 AM PST by KidGlock
Cops: California Hybrid Car Drivers Can't Use Car Pool Lane
SACRAMENTO -- Hybrid car owners in California won't be able to use the car pool lanes when driving alone after all.
The state had planned to reward buyers of the high-mileage vehicles with permission to slip into the car pool lanes. But the federal government hasn't OK'd a waiver, so it may be months before the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic and Insight can cruise solo and still zip past backups.
Proponents of the waiver fear thousands of single-occupant hybrid car owners will slip into car pool lanes without knowing it's illegal. The California Highway Patrol promises to ticket them.
WTF does the federal government have to do with it?
And thus we learn that the HOV lanes aren't about fuel efficiency, but rather about revenue enhancement.
It's Chinatown Geddes! (California).
On a day like today, a friggin' boat would be more appropriate! LOL
These lanes were never about fuel efficiency. They are about reducing traffic and letting these electric cars in without the extra people would increase traffic.
"WTF does the federal government have to do with it?"
Now the federal government can dictate what lane of the road I have clearance to drive on? Jeez, I hope they don't get me for parking crooked in my driveway.
Why you need to say WTF rather than what?
Not surprised as your other indications of knowledge or intelligence are also lacking.
Federal government pays for it.
Clean up your mouth and your mind and start reading and thinking rather than reacting viscerally like a liberal who thinks emotionally not rationally.
Or don't and continue to be an object of derision and scorn.
Most of the money to build the HOV lanes came from the Fed's.
Part of the deal was that if you wanted HOV lane money you had to be sure to enforce the HOV rules. At least 2 people per car for 24 hr/day HOV lanes and at least 3 people per car for part-time HOV lanes. Motorcyles are a allowed exception.
Hybrids only used the HOV lanes (which covered California. For example, VA & CT have not allowed hybrids to use their HOV lanes.) on a waiver from the Fed's. The waiver has expired.
Failure to enforce the law jeopardizes a states access to future federal highway funds.
(I don't agree with any of this silliness, but I figured it was a question worth answering.)
In a true (and all-too-common) rush hour jam here in San Diego, the HOV lanes are absolutely useless. I-15 locks up for miles in all lanes including the HOV, making it simply a more expensive way to not get anywhere. I bought a FasTrak pass, but rarely use it down here (much more useful on the 73 toll road in Orange County).
Wait until one of these hybrids is involved in a major accident spilling the environmentally hazardous contents of their batteries. Then the tree huggers will be all about banning them.
The car pool or HOV lane is a pollution control scheme imposed on some states by the EPA sort of like a consent order. Therefore any changes in implementation from the original concept would require agreement from all parties (including the EPA).
Per passenger, HOV lanes more fuel efficient with 2 or more people in 'traditional' cars than 1 person in a hybrid
When did it become up to the Cops what policy is?
When the batteries run down and the lawnmower engine can pull the hybrid car a brisk 22 mph, they don't want the carpool lanes to clog up. Better to keep the slow traffic with the peasants in the regular lanes. ;^)
My 'educated guess' is that Federal Highway funds (you know - OUR money) was used to build and or to alter existing lanes and is STILL being used to maintain them. And to get that money there's conditions the state has to comply with. If they don't no more cash. So they'd (CA) need a waiver from the original conditions of the agreement.
That's why Nixon was able to impose the 55MPH speed limit - FEDERAL Highway funds. Except Montana said screw you we don't NEED Federal Highway funds so their speed limits (where they existed at all) remained unchanged.
Golly, I'm glad we have had a Republican administration in power for the last four years so we don't have to deal with this sort of bureaucracy any more.
Ever read the Commerce Clause? (Ever heard of the Commerce Clause?)
Ever read the cases dealing with the power of the federal government to put conditions on spending in connection with grants of taxpayer money to state or their political subdivisions?
Then why ban 1-passenger cars only from the HOV lanes? They could reduce traffic a lot more by banning them from all the lanes - or by banning cars altogether. Then there would be zero traffic! Goal achieved!
A pregnant woman now has a three-fer defense: "Your Honor, first me, then there's my unborn child and there's my Toyota Prius, so it makes three using the HOV lane."
Car pool lanes never decreased traffic. They actually add to traffic because if you take one lane away from the general driving public who didn't happen to pick up a hickhiker then you are effectively closing down a traffic lane and causing bigger pileups. These lanes simply do not work, and this is very evident during rush hour. We need to build more roads with the extra gas tax we all voted for years ago and which has been spent on everything except new roads or viable ways to reduce traffic, new roads being the most obvious but also being the most opposed by eviros. Until we do that we will continue to have a traffic problem with car pool lanes adding to it. Question: What if 75% of the drivers in CA started taking on passengers? Do you think that would reduce traffic? The answer is no, because then the car pool lanes would be as full as the other lanes and the reduction in the amount of cars wouldn't make any difference. More roads is the answer, even if we don't like to face it.
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