A California law designed to encourage sales of hybrid vehicles may have backfired by creating rush-hour gridlock for commuters. Between August 2005 and June 2011, the California law allowed owners of hybrid vehicles that get at least 45 miles per gallon to purchase a Clean Air Vehicle Sticker for $8. This allowed them to drive in carpool or HOV (high-occupancy vehicle) lanes regardless of the number of occupants in the car. Instead of spurring sales, two-thirds of the sticker registrants had hybrid cars already on the road. While adding a single hybrid to any HOV lane at 2 a.m. creates no congestion or social costs, say the researchers, adding one hybrid driver at 7 a.m. on weekdays to an already congested road such as Interstate 10 appends $4,500 per car in annual costs (in pollution and time) to society. “For commuters, it means further traffic delays, and this becomes a regressive tax on carpoolers—it’s taxing due to their added time,” says Antonio Bento, associate professor of applied economics and management at Cornell University and lead author of the study published in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.

“Well-meaning state legislators in California who tried to spur sales of gas-electric hybrids have unintentionally created a nightmare scenario for carpoolers who use Interstate 10 who are trying to get to work or get home.” With the addition of solo-driver hybrids on already congested highways, HOV lane traffic climbs above 30 percent beyond socially optimal levels.honeywell air purifier australia While the original clean air sticker policy expired in 2011, a new HOV-exception program with 40,000 stickers for electric, hydrogen fuel cell, and plug-in hybrid vehicles started in 2012.air duct cleaning burlington nc Economists suggest that instead of letting the solo-driver hybrids into rush-hour carpool lanes, the state should provide a tax credit for hybrid vehicles, much like the federal government. georgia clean air force kennesaw ga

Also, policymakers could ration HOV access via congestion pricing, which could relieve congestion and improve air pollution. Having commuters use buses “may represent the win-win in terms of pollution and congestion that policymakers were hoping with the CAVS (sticker) policy,” the researchers write. Even if vehicles were truly zero emission, policies that promote their adoption at the expense of exacerbating congestion still generate substantial losses of time for high-occupancy vehicle commuters, they explain in the paper. To reduce congestion in that interstate corridor and to be fair to commuters in high-occupancy vehicles, the economists suggest a congestion toll of 45 cents per mile, and for hybrid and low-emission vehicles, a reduced congestion toll amounting to 38 cents per mile. Researchers from University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Irvine; and University of Colorado, Boulder are coauthors of the study.The California Air Resources Board, which sets the guidelines for the HOV decal program, reports that as of May 11 the California DMV had issued 68,992 green clean air vehicle decals. 

Consequently, only about 1,000 stickers remain before the total cap of 70,000 stickers is reached. While this is good to know, what does this mean to prospective buyers of plug-in hybrid vehicles? How long will it take before the decals run out again? According to a similar update issued on April 8, the California DMV issued 63,255 green stickers as of then. This means that the recent run rate was between 160 and 170 stickers per calendar day, which would imply that the cap could be reached in about a week. Unfortunately, the DMV has traditionally had a significant application backlog, which could easily exceed the remaining allocation. Assembly Bill 2013 (AB-2013) directed the Air Resources Board and the DMV to make additional 15,000 green decals available on January 1, 2015. Unfortunately, a fairly large backlog had built up between September 23 and January 1. The DMV could not issue any decals during this time, since the program cap has been reached and not yet extended.

Although the backlog has shrunk significantly, it has never been fully eliminated. Looking at it another way, the volume of plug-in hybrids sold in the State between September and April would suggest that all of the remaining green HOV stickers have been spoken for. This is further corroborated by a Facebook comment from Catherine Sylvester. This prospective BWM i3 REx buyer recently contacted the Field Office in Sacramento, and has learned that the application backlog stretches as far back as mid April. This means that new applications will have little chance to be processed before the total cap of 70,000 stickers is reached, and future 2016 Chevy Volt and other new PHEV buyers are likely out of luck. Thankfully, there might be still a few vehicles with pre-assigned green HOV decals left on dealer lots. As improbable as it might sound, this strategy is more likely to succeed than submitting a new application to the DMV at this stage. And finally, it’s worth noting that the total cap will not be extended.

This observation is based on the progression of AB-2013 through the California legislature last year. We are truly witnessing the swan song of this program. Those who wish to drive in the HOV lane might want to consider a pure electric vehicle or a used plug-in hybrid with green stickers on it. Below you’ll find various graphics assembled by us that show California’s green HOV decal allotment, the state’s number of stickers issued each month and a breakdown of model-by-model PHEV sales in California. Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter to receive updates. Tesla 8.0 Software Update Arrives – Here Are All The Details California Removes Limit On Green HOV Stickers For PHEVs Detailed Range Ratings For Chevrolet Bolt EV – 255 Miles City 200-Mile Renault ZOE Expected To Debut In Paris, Plus New “GT électrique” Log in or Create an account Plug-In Hybrid Carpool Stickers Could Prematurely Hit Limit California is continuing to stoke sales for electrics and plug-in hybrids by offering the vehicles access to the state’s highly sought after carpool lanes.

The stickers allow drivers into these HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes even when driving solo. While there are no limits on the number of white stickers issued to pure EVs, the total allotment of green stickers for owners of plug-ins could hit its limit of 40,000—just as the plug-in hybrid market starts to gain momentum. By early October, California has already issued roughly 5,600 green stickers for plug-in hybrids. And in October, nearly 5,000 more plug-in hybrids were sold throughout the U.S., with California serving as the biggest market. The rate of sales for plug-in hybrids, such as the Chevy Volt and Prius Plug-in Hybrid, is outpacing sales of pure electrics, like the Nissan LEAF. And new plug-in hybrids—including the Ford C-Max Energi, Ford Fusion Energi, and Honda Accord Plug-in Hybrid—will soon come to market. These plug-in vehicles use a small internal combustion engines once battery power is depleted. It’s uncertain how legislators will react, and how the market will respond, if the green stickers quickly hit the limit.

“There could be a shift to EVs when the 40,000 plug-in hybrid vehicle stickers run out, however we also anticipate legislation to add more PHEVs,” explained Jay Friedland, legislative director of Plug In America. The green stickers are good for the life of the vehicle and can be transferred from owner to owner (though not from one car to another). The expiration date for White Clean Air Vehicle Stickers, available to full-electrics like the Nissan LEAF and Honda Fit EV, was recently extended to January 1, 2015. “The HOV stickers work very well” in terms of spurring sales of electric vehicles, said Friedland. California’s previous HOV sticker programs—yellow stickers initially used to promote hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid—helped offer “a non-monetary incentive which is potentially worth up to $5,000.” Hybrid models granted one of the 85,000 available HOV stickers, originally offered from August 2005, ended up being worth more on the used car market than identical models without the carpool sticker.