Changes coming for hybrid vehicles in Va. HOV lane

Hank Silverberg, wtop.com

WASHINGTON - If you drive a hybrid car or are in the market for one, the rules for HOV lanes in Virginia are about to get a bit more complicated.

Right now, if you drive on Interstate 66 and have a properly registered hybrid, you get to use the HOV lanes until the end of June 2012. But if you buy a hybrid after July 1 of this year, forget it -- you can't use the car pool lanes without another passenger.

Virginia State Delegate Tag Greason (R-Loudoun) says officials are phasing out the special privilege for hybrids because there were too many of the energy-efficient vehicles in the car pool lanes.

Greason drives a hybrid and sponsored a bill to extend the privilege one more year to make the transition smoother.

"Some people have invested money in that vehicle for their commuting purposes, and I think pulling the rug out from under them by eliminating the program cold turkey was not the right approach," Greason says.

On Interstate 95/Interstate 395, the rules were changed five years ago and only drivers who had hybrids before 2006 are allowed to use the HOV lanes without three people in the car. Different license plates alert police to who's OK and who is not.

Not all hybrids qualify for the exemption even if you buy one before July 1. The Department of Motor Vehicles has a list of those that do.

http://wtop.com/?nid=41&sid=2345396

Here's the latest and greatest from VDOT. Even if a person is purchasing a qualifying vehicle and transferring the plates every two years, the occupancy exemption expires July 1, 2011 whether those plates are "old" or "new". FINALLY!! :)

http://www.dmv.virginia.gov/webdoc/citizen/vehicles/cleanspecialfuel.asp

But what about House Bill 1432? Says it's extended to 2012...

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?111+sum+HB1432

Here is the link you need to clarify Silverberg's article:

http://www.virginiadot.org/newsroom/northern_virginia/2011/hov_law_for_hybrid51769.asp

HOV exemption on 95/395 was extended to June 30, 2012.

Change to I-66 means that future hybrids will not be exempt (like what they did on 95/395 a few years ago.

The link above that takes you to VDOT page that lists exempt vehicles appears to be out of date - in that it does not reflect that exemption was extended for another year.

Took this from Colossus911

It was posted on a different spot with-in the site. I hope VA will get SMART and do what CA did already.

Hybrid drivers lose special privileges in Calif.
By DAISY NGUYEN, Associated Press

Associated Press June 29, 2011 12:36 PM

For six years, California gave owners of hybrid cars the keys to the fast lane: permission to drive alone among carpoolers.

Now hybrids are about to lose the special privilege that was intended as a reward for saving gas and protecting the environment. The vehicles are no longer novel, their key-shaped yellow decals faded from the sun, and transportation officials want to make way for a new generation of even cleaner cars.

Starting Friday, 85,000 hybrid owners have to get back in line with the gas guzzlers, the truckers and everyone else or face steep fines.

State officials say the time has come to end the hugely popular incentive program introduced in August 2005 because they've met their goal of getting drivers to switch to low-emission hybrids, which run on both electricity and gasoline.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/06/29/national/a123246D38.DTL#ixzz1QmVntIxG