Virginia interstate hybrid tangle
Poor Virginia. Over ten years ago, the state passed laws allowing low emission vehicles to use carpool lanes without having passengers. Few Virginians paid attention. Flashforward to the year 2000. Hybrid vehicles were allowed to use the car pool lanes which swelled with the environmentally-friendly vehicles. However, non-hybrid lane users complained about the increased traffic. The state government, to deal with the outrage, has passed laws that hybrid vehicles purchased after June 30th will not be allowed in the carpool lanes on Interstates 95 and 395. Hybrid owners will still have access on other highways carpool lanes until July 1st, 2007. Special license plates will be distributed to differentiate the vehicles.
Talk about a mess. We would hate to be at the dealerships before midnight on June 30th.
[Source: Associated Press & VA Department of Transportation via WUSA]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alex Nunez 4:08PM (6/26/2006)
What a complete bureaucratic nightmare.
Of course, there IS a solution for post-6/30 hybrid buyers: drive a friend or friends to/from work, and presto: you should be able to get back in the carpool lane.
I wonder how many of the complainers were just clueless people who a) weren't aware of the hybrid exception and/or b) could not identify a hybrid if their lives depended on it.
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erk 10:43AM (6/27/2006)
I am one of those Virginia drivers and currently use the HoV lane to the fullest, of my 88 mile roundtrip commute, only about 25 of it is on the HoV lane. On my portion of the HoV I ride, probably 80% of the drivers are single people in hybrids, the two lanes are often empty.... As I fly on by at 75mph I look to the 3-4 non HoV lanes that have been at a dead stop or creeping along at 5-15 mph for the last 10 miles and wonder....there has got to be a better way..
for me, when they take my HoV access away due to my hybrid, I am leaving Virginia, at one time I did not own a hybrid, I have no intention of EVER going back to that goat f*ck of a commute. It will only get worse, many of the commuters are government or military, and with the change in base closings around the country, they are bringing tens of thousands to this area, there is no place for them to go, but south and west, and those commutes are hell on anyone already.
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MikeW 7:41PM (7/03/2006)
Aren't HOV lanes a complete waste?
http://www.motorists.org/issues/emissions/nma_hov_position.html
Luckily Illinois doesn't have that crap.
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