Hybrid vehicles threaten commuters' trip in the fast lane

San Diego Union -Tribune ^ | 7/8/05 | Brian Westley - AP

[edcoil]

Here is CA, carpool lanes are used less then 10% of the time "off-hour" and at best, are only used 37% of the time at "peak" times while the goverment forces traffic jams on everyone else.

If I where governor for one day, I would remove and end all car-pool lanes.

[tfecw]

From my experience I don't see a whole lot of Motorcycles in the HOV3 lanes in DC. The ones that do are typical motorcyclists. They just zip down the center lane :) If I had a bike i'd do the same thing.

Hybrids are a defeat of the entire idea and premise of the carpool lanes. No one in VA says they are for the environment. If the Politicians are saying it they are lying through their teeth. It's for traffic appeasement and also serves as a handy escape route out of DC for the "important" folks that work there. A hybrid driving on the HOV lanes kills that entire concept and renders the roads useless. Anyone can use these roads, just depends how much you want to inconvenience yourself. There is slugging, carpooling, or even going to work early or later than everyone else! I hop on when it opens at 9 and leave work at 6 to get back. I don't like planning my day around the HOV lanes, but that's DC life.

[tfecw]

The CA carpool lanes don't "open?"

the DC one they are talking about is restricted from 600-900 then anyone can use it before or after that. Then at noon They switch the direction (goes south bound) and anyone can use it until 400ish - 600ish and it switches back north at midnight...I think.

[Paradox]

The law of Unintended Consequences...

[Little Pig]

I have seen bikers in the HOV lanes here in DFW during the rush, mostly because splitting lanes in some areas of the metroplex is a death wish. I have used them myself in my B.N. period (Before Nuptials).

I wish I still could, but DW feels that I would be endangering my ability to provide for the family by riding rather than driving.

I need stats on accidents per mile, injuries per mile, and fatalities per mile for bikes and cars, factoring out bike accidents caused by idiot riding (wheelying on the freeway, racing, etc). Any thoughts on where I can find these?

[rkhampton]

When going at a constant speed sometimes just the battery will be providing the power.

When driving at a constant speed, the electric motor may kick in by mistake sometimes, but if you are truly driving at a constant speed, your hybrid is not improving your mileage. Also, you say that "just the battery" is providing power. I don't think this is possible. I understand that the max depletion rate on the prius battery is only 15 bhp for 10 s. This wouldn't even be enough to over come the rolling resistance that your car experiences at highway speeds.

[GOP_Proud]

What's HOV? Sorry, we don't have carpool lanes here so I'm unfamiliar with this term.

[tfecw]

Heavily Occupied Vehicles. So HOV-3 means you need at least 3 people in the car to use it.

[Little Pig]

HOV = High Occupancy Vehicle

The idea being to encourage car-pooling or to get the most out of a vehicle by making sure it is as full as possible. I think buses are excluded from most HOV systems though (both public transport buses and private carriers).

[Millee]

In CO, they're called H(igh) O(ccupancy) V(ehicle) lanes. Same thing as "diamond lanes".

[tfecw]

Hmmm I don't know about the stats, but do agree it's dangerous. Maybe the Dept of Transportation for which ever state you want to check out?

[AbeKrieger]

All of this is funny, but not nearly as funny as folks who ride with mannequins in the car to circumvent the rules. That is quite a solution, if you have convincing dummies.

[Insert DNC/John Kerry/DU joke here.]

[keat]

if you are truly driving at a constant speed, your hybrid is not improving your mileage.

So it's just a "feel good" law that isn't really helping the environment and may, in fact, be hurting it by discouraging carpooling. Two hybrids driven separately pollute more that one conventional Honda Civic with two passengers. Also, where will all the batteries go in 10 years?

[antivenom]

18 wheelers pay tons more in taxes and many of them are regulated to only ONE lane of traffic and in many cases not allowed on certain interstates or freeways because of "hazardous loads"...your whining is only a yip compared to the long hualers cries...

[Little Pig]

Nah, NHTSA and DOT, for all their purported unbiasedness, tend to report stats to disfavor bikes, as in "deaths for over-40 bikers rose over the period of 2001-2004", with no acknowledgement of whether the overall number of bikers over 40 also rose during that period. So, did the percentage of over-40 bikers that were killed out of the whole group go up, or did it stay the same and just the raw numbers go up? In all likelihood, the percentage of over-40 bikers killed dropped relative to the total number of over-40 bikers, but we may never know unless we get access to the raw data, and maybe not even then, depending on how the study was run.

[Little Pig]

10 years? Try 4-5.

[bannie]

Some pigs are more equal than others.

[rkhampton]

Two hybrids driven separately pollute more that one conventional Honda Civic with two passengers.

Good point.

I've always insisted that hybrid technology, after you factor in issues concerning the batteries, does not make sense on small passenger cars. And, as far as I know, it isn't used in the only instances where it would make sense, i.e., city buses and delivery trucks.

[kallisti]

How about a lane of oncoming traffic?

[NYorkerInHouston]

I get a steady 45-47 miles per gallon on the highway and thats driving with traffic, around here 65 to 75 miles per hour. If the flow of traffic is around 55 to 65 miles per hour I can get 50-55 miles per gallon easy. Something is improving the mileage. The prius battery does kick on by itself not for very long, but it does. The car can according to Toyota travel 1 to 2 miles at 30 miles per hour on battery alone and I've gone up 7 stories in the parking garage at work using the just the battery though it was drained to the 20% mark.