Anyone know if there is an update on the HOV access for Hybrids next year in Virginia? 66 to Washington through Dulles access from Loudoun County would be miserable without HOV.
The HOV exemption for hybrids is due to expire on July 1, but the General Assembly could extend it at their session in January. The bad news is that a state task force has strongly recommended that the exemption NOT be extended, saying that eliminating the exemption is the easiest way to make more room in the HOV lanes. For more information, see http://www.virginiadot.org/comtravel/hov-default.asp and scroll down a bit to "HOV News." To contact your legislators about this issue, see http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform
What I saw first is this statement. "The Task Force recommends that only the cleanest hybrid vehicles be allowed to use the HOV lanes and that the current hybrid exemption from HOV restrictions expire in 2006, as provided in current Virginia law. " The Prius would certainly qualify as 'cleanest'. It may be that they're trying to make sure that the 'hot-rod' hybrids don't get the exemption. I'm having problems downloading the PDF files, so I can't see what was actually in the reports.
What they mean is to immediately stop issuing clean fuel plates to less-clean hybrids, and then let the exemption expire. They don't mean to extend the exemption for cleaner vehicles.
