Posted on 07/08/2005 8:30:36 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
ARLINGTON, Va. – Instead of crawling out of bed at 4 a.m. to beat the morning rush, Frank Murphy sleeps late these days. He says he owes it all to his hybrid car – and a law that has some of his fellow commuters upset. Drivers of the environmentally friendly cars are allowed to cruise solo in Virginia's car pool lanes, slicing Murphy's daily two-hour commute in half. And since buying a hybrid 18 months ago, Murphy is leaving his home as much as three hours later.
"The quality of life has gone up tremendously," he said.
But Murphy's joy is a source of irritation for his co-worker, Kristine Johnson, who does not own a hybrid. To travel in the car pool lane, she lingers at a commuter lot until two strangers agree to ride with her.
The inconvenience pays off less than it used to: Johnson complains that hybrids are making car pool lanes as congested as regular lanes.
"It's not fair," Johnson said. "In the afternoon it's all hybrids around me. I used to be able to go home in 30 minutes. Now it takes 45."
So goes the debate between Virginia's car-poolers and hybrid owners. Lawmakers say the hybrid rule wasn't meant to clog the car pool lanes, but to encourage people to buy the cars, which run on a low-polluting combination of electricity and gasoline.
Normally, the federal government would withdraw highway money from a state that gave hybrids commuter-lane privileges. But Virginia has a special waiver while Congress considers allowing the states to make their own rules for hybrids. Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia and Florida are poised to move ahead with similar incentives if the Senate passes a long-delayed highway bill.
California Assemblywoman Fran Pavley wrote legislation to open her state's car pool lanes to single-occupant hybrids. She said the bill contains "numerous safeguards" to avoid replicating Virginia's woes.
For example, California's Department of Motor Vehicles would limit the number of hybrids in the commuter lanes by issuing only 75,000 special decals. State transportation officials would review the law periodically, and it would only apply to hybrids that get at least 45 miles per gallon.
Brian D. Taylor, director of UCLA's Institute of Transportation Studies, argues against linking hybrids with car pool lanes, which he says exist for an unrelated purpose: taking cars off the road.
"It would be sort of like saying you should allow nurses and school teachers to exceed the speed limit because they contribute positive things to society," Taylor said.
Joe Waldman, general manager of northern Virginia's Landmark Honda, said officials should not be so quick to blame crowded car pool lanes on hybrids. He noted that solo drivers in regular vehicles continue to violate the rules, despite stepped-up enforcement and a new state law doubling some fines to as much as $1,000 for a fourth offense.
But Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Joan Morris said, "Even if we got rid of all the violators tomorrow, we'd still have a capacity problem."
In April 2003, about 2,500 hybrid drivers in Virginia registered their cars and asked for "clean fuel" license plates, allowing them to use the car pool lanes, Morris said. By May of this year, the number had more than tripled – to about 9,000.
Meanwhile, Murphy, the Virginia hybrid owner, continues to sleep late, while Virginia transportation officials consider compromises such as letting hybrids use the lanes only at times when traffic is less congested.
Murphy said it would be ridiculous to end the hybrid exemption altogether, but agrees something's got to give.
"I do have to admit, there are a lot of (hybrids) out there," he said.
How is this any different from allowing single-rider motorcycles in carpool/HOV lanes (apart from probably slightly reducing accidents involving motorcycles by taking them out of the reach of inattentive commuters)?
Car-pool lanes are taxation without representation.
We pay for the construction and maintenance yet are not allowed to use them.
What's next - letting people with "Hillary 2008" stickers cruise solo in the carpool lane?
Aren't hybrids running on gas at highway speed?
Not quite. Politicans who have been elected make these discriminatory laws.
We pay for the construction and maintenance yet are not allowed to use them.
True to an extent. Your money is taken from you (at gunpoint if necessary) and the people who took it told you they would use it to make roads. But they are not required to do so. They also get to make the rules for use of the roads they do make.
Private roads would eliminate the problem. But there are more important problems first.
"It's not fair," Johnson said. "In the afternoon it's all hybrids around me. I used to be able to go home in 30 minutes. Now it takes 45."
I'll bet these people are going to really start screaming when the hybrid vehicles include a larger percentage of SUVs. Ford already has a hybrid version of the Escape on the dealers' lots, and others are sure to follow.
"Brian D. Taylor, director of UCLA's Institute of Transportation Studies, argues against linking hybrids with car pool lanes, which he says exist for an unrelated purpose: taking cars off the road."
Yes, and part of the reason for taking cars off the road is to increase the fuel efficiency per passenger mile. Hybrids also do this.
"In April 2003, about 2,500 hybrid drivers in Virginia registered their cars and asked for 'clean fuel' license plates, allowing them to use the car pool lanes, Morris said. By May of this year, the number had more than tripled – to about 9,000."
Even if ALL NINE THOUSAND HYBRIDS ARE ON THE SAME ROAD AT THE SAME TIME, this isn't what's increasing congestion in the HOV lanes in Northern Virginia. These are roads that see several times that amount of traffic in an hour. As an example, I-66 in Northern Virginia sees nearly 200,000 vehicles per day.
Non-issue.
Sorry, but its not taxation without representation. Elected representatives created the law. That would be akin to me saying that because I can't fly the space shuttle or an F-16 I shouldn't be taxed for it.
BUILD MORE LANES! QUIT WITH THE SOCIAL ENGINEERING PROJECTS AND SOLVE THE PROBLEMS WE HAVE!
Base on my experience (I have a Prius) it varies depending on whether one is accelerating or not. When going at a constant speed sometimes just the battery will be providing the power.
I can see right now yer mind ain't right.
I wonder what they would say if we start filling the carpool lanes with Hummers (with the legal 2+ passengers)?
The truth is that a large percentage of those in the carpool lanes are not going to or from work -- they're doing something social, which is why there are two in the car: mother and daughter going shopping, husband and wife headed off to some event, couple of friends going to the beach or the mall -- while hardworking folks are crawling along at half the speed and buring twice the fuel. IT'S DISGUSTING. Carpool lanes are a fraud, a piece of social engineering that has failed but which its supporters refuse to analyze dispassionately.
I don't understand the concept of HOV lanes. If you allow more people to sit in traffic with their cars idling, doesn't that create more emissions then letting everyone use the extra lane(s)? I'm admittedly science-stupid so please go easy on me. : )
The diamond lanes were supposed to reduce traffic, and thereby reduce gas consumption and pollution. They have done neither. People don't use them, because most people cannot routinely coordinate schedules that way. Nor do they want to. So they end up sitting in traffic jammed up next to empty diamond lanes, taking forever to get to work, and spewing pollution, since idling, slow moving stop and go traffic causes more pollution than moving at freeway speeds.
Hybrids do both: reduce fuel consumption and put out less pollution. That is the rationale for them being in the diamond lane. But the truth is...the diamond lanes are not necessary to achieve that goal. The technology is.
Open the diamond lanes, press automobile technology to reduce fuel consumption, and let the market take over.
The diamond lanes are one more failed liberal "program" which did not work. But the liberal bureaucrats and ideologues who dreamed it up will never admit to that, because to admit it would show them for the fools they are.
I would bet that the real culprits of crowding on HOV lanes are the single-occupant vehicles breaking the law, not the hybrid drivers.
As for those of you griping about the HOV lanes and the suggestion that they discriminate against you--is it not true that when the state sought federal funds to build those lanes, the state agreed to designate them HOV. Now that they are built, wouldn't it be going back on the bargain? You can argue against the policy behind federal support for HOV lanes all you want, but after the state has spent the money and you've built the lane, it's a little late to revise the deal.
Or in Red states...trucks with mirror image stickers on the FRONT bumper that say "Run Hillary Run"
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