Carpool access equals greater hybrid production?
The key to the "struggling auto industry?"
California crazy
According to the California legislature, the key to more alternative vehicles is increased access to California HOV lanes, or carpool lanes.
While I’ve been a fan of such programs in the past, shouldn’t the California Senate focus on how to pay the State’s bills rather than whether they can help the “struggling auto industry”?
Perhaps I’m just jaded by the financial state of affairs in my home state, but is allowing 40,000 more alternative vehicles onto California HOV lanes really going to impact the California economy? Dramatically change the plans of automakers? For instance, is HOV access the key to alternative vehicle viability?
Alternative cars such as the Chevy Volt will have capped production for the next few years regardless of whether California offers HOV access or not. California GM dealers are already assuming that demand for the very limited Volt will enable dealer markups as high as $20,000 atop MSRP.
Someone willing to pay an $20,000 extra for a Volt won’t do so without an HOV pass?
No doubt California legislators have done a lot to promote alternative vehicles, but considering the state of the California economy, and the intentionally limited supplies of alternative vehicles, there must be more pressing things to focus on these days.
I like the HOT idea. California needs revenues.
the problem with most interstates and beltways used for commuting is that they are pretty much maxed in terms of physical and fiscal expansion.
Many do not have additional r/w that is already not developed and would be exceptionally expensive.
A good example is the ICC in Washington/Maryland that will cost more than 100 million dollars per mile and will cost so much that the tolls alone that will be charged are insufficient to pay for it.
So the future of many of these urban interstates is …HOV…
They simply won’t be able to accommodate much more solo cars – at rush hour – no matter how “green” they are.
Ultimately all you’ll do is encourage everyone to buy an EV – to drive solo in and that will be the end of HOV from a practical perspective.
Yes.. they’ll all have EVs but the road will be gridlocked with solo drivers.
This is where HOT comes in.
The theory behind HOT is to promote HOV – carpools, buses and Vans and to sell any excess capacity to SOLO drivers – for a price – a price that will escalate higher and higher the more demand there is – with the explicit goal to charge so much for SOLO tolls that most won’t pay the toll and that’s how they plan to keep the road from getting gridlocked from SOLO drivers.
The TOLL could go as high as $5-10 a mile at rush hour for SOLO drivers.
It’s really not about clean tailpipes.
It’s about a very limited amount of road that cannot be expanded and how to convince more and more people to – not drive SOLO at rush hour at least.
Arizona stopped giving HOV access to hybrids & alternative fuel vehicles in 2008.
I think now we should limit new HOV permits to EV’s and Plug-in Hybrids.
“Unfortunately”? What difference does it make why people buy a hybrid? “..has nothing to be with being “green”..” So buying hybrid for reasons other than being green is somehow better than buying for convenience, a good deal, just liking the car? CA already has a fair number of hybrids with HOV access, what’s a few more?
It’s a double-edged blade, I think. While it takes much more effort to carpool, hence the lanes name, we are all in this together. However, if the automakers do mark-up the EV’s and Hybrids and make more profit; the government should at least hold them accountable for paying back ALL the money loaned to them to bail them out. We do need to reduce emissions. We do need to spend more on R&D to find an ultimately efficient and environmentally friendly vehicle. If someone is willing to pay that much for a hybrid, then I think they should be allowed to drive in the HOV lane. However, I think that it should be limited to only hybrids that can obtain a MPG of at least 40 or above and not be limited to certain makes. Such as excluding VW TDI’s that have been able to get such ratings for years or overseas purchases of modified Mini’s with TDI getting 50+mpg. What if you’re an individual with an OCD that can’t carpool, but wants to help out environmentally. Besides a small tax credit (that may or may not be re-approved), what’s the incentive; besides piece of mind?
In the Washington DC area – solo access to the HOV via a hybrid has been highly controversial and has generated huge resentment from the folks who carpool to get access to HOV.
Unfortunately – many people will buy a hybrid if it get them solo access to HOV.
It has nothing to do with being “green” even though they’ll strut their “green” credentials when asked.