https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/hov-lane-rules-stickers-electric-cars-13703343.php A new road rage? Bay Area electric car driver shares HOV lane tale March 20, 2019 David Curran
[image / Jessica Christian / The Chronicle https://s.hdnux.com/photos/73/11/27/15504860/5/920x920.jpg Highway 101 near Cotati. One Bay Area driver says they were blocked from using the HOV lane by another car on 101 near Santa Rosa ] Highway 101 near Cotati. One Bay Area driver says they were blocked from using the HOV lane by another car on 101 near Santa Rosa. You never know what's going to make someone flip you off on the freeway, but one recent Bay Area tale illustrates the near-constant chaos of our local freeways. Recently, a Bay Area driver was infuriated after a car with a single driver tried to use the carpool lane during rush hour. In fact, the story goes, this "carpool sheriff" was so enraged they blocked the driver from getting into the HOV lane for 5 miles. But, as it turns out, the car trying to get into the HOV lane was a Chevy Bolt, an electric car permitted in the carpool lane even when there is only one person in the vehicle. In fact, many EV drivers would freely admit this is the main reason they got the emission-free vehicle: so they can beat the backup and use the carpool lane. A Chevy Bolt driver, pretty miffed this unpleasant experience on 101 near Santa Rosa, wrote about his experience on Reddit[ https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/b359u2/bad_behavior_on_101/ ] ... "Today I got held up by some righteous person who thought blocking the carpool lane for 5 miles was appropriate because I shouldn't be there. The passenger flipped me off, waved two fingers frantically in the window, and pointed to every carpool sign that came up. They managed to do this while driving 63 in a 65 with nobody in front of them for a mile between Petaluma and Rohnert Park." The Bolt [EV] driver, flyingphotog, was convinced this was because the driver did not see, or was not aware of, the stickers on the car allowing for HOV lane access: "They clearly thought I needed to have two people. They were just ignorant to the stickers." Is it possible that, after all these years, people still aren't aware of carpool lane stickers? Maybe, as one person pointed out, this might be about something else: "It may have more to do with the people who are annoyed by the wealthy who can afford an expensive electric car every 2 years to get access to the carpool lane." ... Other responses to the Bolt driver were mostly sympathetic, except for the one person who had a more practical response: "Grow up. Idiots will be idiots and flip you off. We all deal with it." Perhaps. And maybe this is just another driver getting flipped off for a not-very-good reason. But if you have an EV and fear this unforeseen issue, there is a possible solution suggested by a Redditor: "I saw a couple of mannequins in the free section on craigslist today. People used to put one in the passenger seat to cheat bridge tolls and carpool lanes. You could do this just to cheat the 'carpool sherrifs (sic)." [© sfgate.com] https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/b359u2/bad_behavior_on_101/ Bad behavior on 101 Hi everyone. Just in case you weren’t aware, CA offers HOV stickers that look like this [ https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/?1dmy&urile=wcm:path:/dmv_content_en/dmv/vr/decal ] at a nominal fee to low-emitting and electric vehicle owners. They’ve been doing this for over 10 years. Today, I got held up by some righteous person who thought slowing the carpool lane for 5 miles was appropriate because I shouldn’t be there. Their passenger flipped me off, waved two fingers frantically in the window, and pointed to every carpool sign that came up. They managed to do this while driving 63 in a 65 with nobody in front of them, holding up traffic for a mile behind me between Petaluma and Rohnert Park. Picture (dashcam screen cap): https://ibb.co/fGNsNQK Please don’t be this person. Spend your energy writing to authorities (CHP? legislators?) about enforcing actual carpool violations. You know, the 25% of all traffic in the left lane during active carpool hours. I’m just trying to make it home. [© reddit.com] + (TMC partnership expands hybrid [not-EV] production) https://www.independent.ie/business/technology/toyota-and-suzuki-drive-new-electric-vehicle-partnership-37934885.html Toyota and Suzuki drive new electric vehicle partnership March 21 2019 Carmakers Toyota and Suzuki yesterday said they plan to produce electric vehicles (EVs) and compact cars for each other to better compete with fast-changing ... https://cdn-01.independent.ie/incoming/article37935650.ece/cb583/AUTOCROP/w620/P30.fiveways.jpg For EVLN EV-newswire posts use: http://evdl.org/archive/ {brucedp.neocities.org} -- Sent from: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/ _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
