Social Icons

Featured Posts

Solo Green Car Drivers Allowed In Calif. Carpool Lanes

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

By Cornelius Nunev


Solo drivers in California are now able to take advantage of the HOV lanes -- or, the so-called "carpool lanes" -- if they are driving a professional clean option fuel automobile. The program is set to expire in two years, but not if some legislators have their way.

Now giving HOV lanes to solo drivers

The HOV lanes have been open to motorists of electric, compressed natural gasoline, hydrogen fuel cell and plug-in hybrid vehicles since Jan 1, 2013. The basic idea is to make it much faster to get to work.

One man named Steve Pinkard said that he saves a lot of money and time by using the lanes. He drives a CNG vehicle, according to CBS.

The lane has been opened up to solo motorists in clean-vehicles, though the HOV program was really started to be able to reduce pollution and reduce congestion with fewer drivers on the road.

Hybrids are more common in the area than ever considering an earlier program that allowed HOV lane use for single drivers with hybrids. Hopefully, this program will have the same effect.

Stickers to identify

There are official stickers produced for the program. The Nissan Leaf and Ford Focus Electric are qualifying zero-emissions automobiles. A vehicle powered by an electric battery, natural gasoline or hydrogen fuel all count as zero-emissions vehicle, and they get a white label.

The Chevy volt and Toyota Prius Plug-in are just two examples of automobiles that would get a green sticker. There will only be 40,000 of these issued, and they are for plug-in hybrids. There have already been 9,000 green stickers issued.

All yellow and gold stickers expired last year, and they are no longer legitimate.

May expire in a couple of years

Currently, the program will expire in 2015. Hopefully, it will be expected to 2025 though. That is the plan with a bill being launched by California Assembly by Assembly Member Bob Blumenfield.

Discovering if you qualify

At Drive Clean you can find a list of other local incentives for clean air automobiles. You can also get help finding out if a vehicle qualifies by calling or going to the California Air Source Board site.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment