http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/200...1072005/1629903 Hybrid-car drivers who enjoy special access to Virginia's High Occupancy Vehicle lanes are seeing that privilege challenged yet again. A task force looking at how to improve traffic flow in the state's HOV lanes has recommended for the second time that lawmakers no longer give hybrid owners carte blanche to use the faster lanes. And federal officials are once again pressuring the state to reconsider the pro-hybrid policy. Hybrids like the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight, which run on a mix of gasoline and electricity, now account for up to 19 percent of the cars in the I-95 HOV lanes during the peak morning hours, the report states.
The Task Force With An Axe to Grind [font=Comic Sans MS:5ea8762c77] Reading the article more closely, it appears that VA is simply weighing options as the 1 July 2006 deadline approaches. Some of the options being considered such as raising clean fuel registrations from $10/year to $500/year are plainly absurd and will most likely be discarded. Others such as strengthening the definition of a clean fuel exempt vehicle to SULEVs only might be more appropriate. While the report notes that up to 19% of cars in HOV lanes on I95 during rush hour are hybrids, it doesn\'t point out that the public transportation system in the Washington DC metro area is so closely centralized that those commuters have no real viable choices but to drive. The same goes for I-66. Following their figures, taking hybrids out of the HOV lanes would put 19% more traffic in the regular lanes grinding that traffic even slower than it is now. And if 19% of the vehicles in HOV lanes are hybrids, I\'d reckon a guess that at least 30-45% of the remaining 80% are violators with less than two people per vehicle that are squeaking by without being ticketed (at least on the roads I always drive during rush hour)! Instead of blaming the hybrids, let\'s get better enforcement of HOV across the board and the lanes will clear up dramatically... It sounds like some angry folks who are jealous of hybrids using the HOV lanes contributed to this report. It would be nice if they could see beyond their rose colored glasses and notice that the violators far outweigh the hybrids out there....[/font:5ea8762c77]
