Washington Post reporter seeks help on hybrids

I'm a reporter at the Washington Post and I'm doing a story on the exemptions allowed for people who own hybrid cars and other low emission vehicles. I'm interested in talking to people on all sides of this topic: those who own the cars, those who hate seeing single drivers whiz by them, those who have considered the exemption as a reason to move to the outer suburbs, etc. Please email me with any comments at ginsbergs@washpost.com

Steven, I am a slugger and sometimes I drive. I have been doing this for over two years. It use to take 20 minutes to go from the Horner Rd. Lot to the Pentagon and now it takes almost 30 minutes. I have to say that this is greatly attributed to the great number of CF vehicles that are allowed on the HOV without picking up other riders. A couple of years ago, I would see one maybe two CF vehicles each day. Now, at any given time, I would see three to four of them as I travel to and from the Pentagon.

The HOV is to help commuters get to and from work in the most efficient way. At the rate the number of CF cars are growing on the HOV lanes, commuters who are putting in the effort to car/vanpool or ride the bus find their commute getting longer and longer.

I feel that CF drivers should put in their fair share of helping to eleviate the traffic congestion that we all suffer instead of contributing to it. Granted the HOV lanes are still not as congested as the regular lanes but give it a year or two, we will see the traffic on the HOV crawling because of all these CF cars. VDOT should require tiny CF cars with two doors to have at least have two people and the four door CF cars to have three people like all other cars.

I have understood for many years that the main reason for the HOV lanes is not to get folks to work faster but to reduce pollution caused by auto emissions. Hybrids and other CF vehicles help meet the goals of reducing auto emissions.

The incentive for our family to purchase our hybrid was to provide a greater deal of predictability to our commute. It is generally used in the a.m. trip by other family for three riders to an unusual commute location not served by public transit or slug lines. For a while the third person was dealing with unpredictable circumstances which caused last minute cancellation. With the hybrid, these last minute changes no longer make the other two late.

The CF vehicle is not the one I usuually drive since I can pick up slugs to the Pentagon. From time to time I have been able to use it for my commute. It saves significant time waiting for slugs (reducing the emissions produced while idling in the slug line for anywhere from 5 -20 minutes)and easily knocks an hour off a solo ride on 395 . Gas milage is phenominal, ranging from 45-50 mpg when I drive and even higher with it's regular driver.

The couple of times I stopped for slugs with the CF car I caught a vibe that I was unfair to non-CF slug drivers by taking away their riders. I guess I can't win!

I think that the only solution to the traffic problems that we have is to get cars off the road. Period. Hybrid vehicles do nothing to help that. Yes, lower pollution is wonderful and all, but Hybrids do not improve the commute for anyone as a whole. By picking up slugs every afternoon, I am eliminating two other cars from the afternoon commute. If we took away two-thirds of the vehicles traveling I-95 south, that would be a tremendous reduction of volume.

I do not support Hybrids in the HOV without three passengers because the goal of HOV is to reduce congestion, and Hybrids are not contributing to that end.

If VDOT or local agencies wanted to, they could easily provide up to date numbers on how many hybrids are in the state, and on 95. We did get the overall numbers last year in the statewide HOV report (I am too lazy to look it up on my C drive) This information is being intentionally withheld in my opinion. Here is my estimate, and tell me if you think I am off base. I have heard that about 10,000 cars use the 95 HOV (anyone have a better number?). On average, I believe that we now have about 20% hybrids. That would be 2000 hybrids using the road. However, I note that the license plates are now up to almost 10,000. I know that most of the VA hybrids are in Northern VA (75%?). That would b 7500 in Northern VA. But it would seem that that would imply maybe 4000 hybrids for I-95. (Comments?)

Bob