Hybrid Helper Bill faces opposition

Legislation in Sacramento to incentivize Hybrid vehicles by allowing them access to carpool lanes is facing opposition:

In written testimony, the California Assn. of Councils of Government last month called the bill irresponsible and said it "fails to recognize the extent of traffic congestion."

Bay Area transportation officials have raised the strongest objections. They say the measure could scuttle their efforts to encourage more commuters to use express buses, and could cost as much as $2 million a year in lost toll revenue because drivers in some carpool lanes cross toll bridges for free.

Brian D. Taylor, director of UCLA's Institute of Transportation Studies, said the bill was "bad policy" because it would attempt to motivate one goal — energy efficiency — by altering high-occupancy vehicle lanes that were designed to address the different objective of improving traffic flow.

"Why don't we allow nurses and schoolteachers to use HOV lanes? They're certainly doing good things," Taylor said. "Do you want to say, 'We want people to eat more roughage, let's let those people use HOV lanes as well?' Just because there are a lot of benefits of hybrid technology, that doesn't mean there's a logical nexus between that and HOV lanes."

What the bill also ignored is the fact that hybrid's gas mileage improves, counterintuitively, in stop-and-go traffic. Allowing hybrid vehicles to travel at highway speeds will reduce their efficiency and contribution to resource conservation!