CA HOV sticker program status

[jza80]

Last Friday, I was shocked to see that over4,000 green HOV stickers had suddenly been claimed since the February 28 status update, leaving less than 4,000 stickers remaining in the program.  The same day, I received a notification that the California DMV was suspending the program that allowed dealers to make advance application for green HOV stickers for in-stock vehicles (no change to the white HOV sticker program).  Just one week earlier, I had placed a special order with my local dealer for a new Fusion Energi.  Then, there were about 9,000 stickers left with a burn rate of about 2,000 per month and I was confident that there would be some left when my car arrived.  But the sudden depletion of the stickers, plus the suspension of the dealer pre-order program changes everything.  Now, I have cancelled my order and was able to locate my second choice color vehicle (silver), with the same options I wanted plus the rear seat belts.  This one is a new build just delivered, but the dealer somehow put the order in for HOV stickers a week before the cutoff so there should be no problems in that department.  The bummer is, the deal was about $400 less attractive, I did not get the Oxford White I originally wanted (but the Ingot Silver is nice, too), and I had to spend another $150 on the rear inflatable seatbelts to get the other options I wanted (my rear seat passengers will have to thank me later, I guess).  Anyway, the point of this post is just to let everyone know that the CA HOV program has changed drastically in just the last 2 weeks - and will be depleted much sooner than you may be planning for if you have a special order or are sitting on the fence.

 

This week, about 500 stickers were claimed, leaving about 3,300 left to go.  Maybe things will calm down now that the remaining stickers can only be claimed by individuals, but for sure they will all be gone in the next 2 months if not much sooner.  I noticed that Toyota is running new ads for their discounted Prius Plug In lease, with a blinking message that the HOV stickers are now in limited supply.  That will probably get some buyers off the fence, just like it was with me when I learned about the sudden depletion.

 

Here is the link to the HOV program status page, they seem to be updating it every week now (as opposed to once per month or 2 before).  It will be interesting to see how long they last:

 

http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/carpool/carpool.htm

 

Some other info on this:

 

http://green.autoblog.com/2014/03/19/green-hov-stickers-for-plug-in-hybrids-gone-california/

 

There has also been a bill just introduced the CA Assembly that would expand the green HOV sticker program, I can't find the link for it anymore and I was not able to locate a copy of the bill earlier when I had the link so I don't know how many additional green HOV stickers it was proposing to add to the program beyond the original 40,000.  But, I would not be holding my breath for this - now that the Democratic party no longer holds a supermajority the odds of something like this actually moving forward are pretty slim.

Edited March 22, 2014 at 04:24 AM by jza80

[Fat Fusion]

The way I look at it is my free time is worth 50 bucks an hour (or more) and the half hour I save per day works out to about $1000/mo.  That doesn't include the mental health advantages of driving by tens of thousands of people on my way to work and back.  I guess my point is the few hundred bucks you spent mean nothing in the long run.  Enjoy your car and hope that no one ever has to test those rear seat belts.  In the mean time they're a good conversation piece.  Most people have never seen them.

[murphy]

There is a point of no return with HOV lanes.  If too many people are allowed to use them the HOV lane(s) will be just as clogged as the regular lanes.

 

There is a different approach on the 495 beltway around Washington, DC.  They built new lanes between the existing lanes that are EasyPass only lanes.  The cost to use them varies.  If the regular lanes are flowing at the speed limit the cost is at it's lowest point.   As the regular lanes start backing up the cost of using the EasyPass only lanes rises.  The slower the regular lanes move the higher the EasyPass price goes.  The cost is posted on overhead electric signs.

[Russael]

There is a point of no return with HOV lanes.  If too many people are allowed to use them the HOV lane(s) will be just as clogged as the regular lanes.

 

There is a different approach on the 495 beltway around Washington, DC.  They built new lanes between the existing lanes that are EasyPass only lanes.  The cost to use them varies.  If the regular lanes are flowing at the speed limit the cost is at it's lowest point.   As the regular lanes start backing up the cost of using the EasyPass only lanes rises.  The slower the regular lanes move the higher the EasyPass price goes.  The cost is posted on overhead electric signs.

 

In a way, that goes to show the old adage, 'time is money'. :)  Still, that's interesting that the price is variable, especially by traffic volume.

[jza80]

The way I look at it is my free time is worth 50 bucks an hour (or more) and the half hour I save per day works out to about $1000/mo.  That doesn't include the mental health advantages of driving by tens of thousands of people on my way to work and back.  I guess my point is the few hundred bucks you spent mean nothing in the long run.  Enjoy your car and hope that no one ever has to test those rear seat belts.  In the mean time they're a good conversation piece.  Most people have never seen them.

 

That was my thinking as well.   The Fusion Energi is a great car, but one of the big selling points here in CA is that you can get access to the car pool lane (until Jan 2019 at least) and I did not want to miss out on that perk.  

 

I picked up my car yesterday, should have the HOV stickers in a few days from the dealer.  I actually haven't even looked at the rear seat belts yet...I'll have to go out and see what they look like!  I did try out the air-cooled seats during my drive back from San Diego to pick up the car, and the heated steering wheel for just a minute (it gets very warm, very quickly). 

[rocketfan]

The way I look at it is my free time is worth 50 bucks an hour (or more) and the half hour I save per day works out to about $1000/mo.  That doesn't include the mental health advantages of driving by tens of thousands of people on my way to work and back.  I guess my point is the few hundred bucks you spent mean nothing in the long run.  Enjoy your car and hope that no one ever has to test those rear seat belts.  In the mean time they're a good conversation piece.  Most people have never seen them.

My thoughts exactly.  I read about the stickers possibly being gone by mid to late April.  With a 4-6 week backlog in the ordering process and being unable to submit the sticker application until I got license plates, I got nervous that even if I bought a car in late March I would not get the stickers before they ran out.  Last week, I found a dealer that had the foresight to order stickers for all of its Energis.  I probably ended up paying $400-500 more especially since the salesperson put the stickers on the desk while we were negotiating but still got a good deal and for an extra $8 at the time of purchase for the stickers, drove home in the carpool lane with the stickers attached to the car.

 

I was going to buy the Fusion Energi at the end of year anyway but the stickers just kicked my timetable up a bit. Now I am belatedly researching chargers and electric rate plans but am enjoying saving gas and time on my commute.

[jza80]

Down to a little over 1,800 stickers remaining as of 3/28.  Looks like they will be all gone before the end of April.

[rocketfan]

Down to a little over 1,800 stickers remaining as of 3/28.  Looks like they will be all gone before the end of April.

Yep, stickers are going fast.  Since California is now posting a weekly sticker countdown, it looks like 206 stickers a day are being issued.   At this rate, the stickers will be gone in a little less than 9 days after 3/28 or about 4/7 or 4/8.  If the current rate keeps up, the stickers will be all gone before mid-April.

 

There is proposed legislation to increase the number of PHEV green carpool stickers that just got through committee but I wouldn't hold your breath on that one unless it actually gets done.  I'm enjoying the car so much (and regenerative braking) that not getting the sticker would be fine (but I am now a lot happier that I bought a car from a dealer that had carpool stickers for its energis already in hand).  

[Cairo94507]

As of May 9th all 40K stickers have been assigned.  I am hoping the legislature will authorize another 20K or so.

[Fat Fusion]

As of May 9th all 40K stickers have been assigned.  I am hoping the legislature will authorize another 20K or so.

 

Not me.  The carpool lane on 101 is already pretty stuffed on my way home from work.  I know, I know, I'm adding to the "problem."

[rodthomas]

Purchased my Fusion Today!.. 

 

I was told by the finance dept. the HOV stickers were gone..  as of May 09

 

Right before I got the keys my Saleman gave me the stickers in hand... (I thought you had to go thru DMV to get these)

 

He gave me 2 Big and 2 Small?

 

Do all of these go on the car?

[murphy]

Yes they all go on the car in designated areas.

 

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/vr/decal.htm

[Cairo94507]

I never installed all of them on my last car, a Prius.  I put one on the rear hatch on the right side of the lower window and was never stopped or hassled.  4 stickers on the car is just way to many IMO.  

[Energitic]

Purchased my Fusion Today!.. 

 

I was told by the finance dept. the HOV stickers were gone..  as of May 09

 

Right before I got the keys my Saleman gave me the stickers in hand... (I thought you had to go thru DMV to get these)

Until recently, dealers could preorder the stickers for cars on their lots. The last of those stickers are going fast now, you were lucky to still get them. :)

 

 

I never installed all of them on my last car, a Prius.  I put one on the rear hatch on the right side of the lower window and was never stopped or hassled.

It's not just about the police seeing them, but also other drivers. The stickers are easy to remove once they expire in 2019 (I did this with the old yellow stickers on a previous hybrid car).

[Cairo94507]

Apparently CA will very soon be authorizing another 45K stickers for our cars.  I will order a set as soon as this happens. 

[Cairo94507]

I am really not concerned about other drivers seeing the stickers.  So long as it is prominently displayed on the car so the police can see it that is good enough for me.  My last car was rear ended 4 times, every single time while stopped in commute traffic and some idiot playing with their phone and not paying attention to traffic in front of them.  After the second time and having to reorder stickers from DMV each time as the old sticker could not be removed from the bumper and re-applied, and the order process taking 2 months, I said screw it and installed the sticker on the rear window of the car and never had a problem after that.  

[Energitic]

Just FYI, Gov. Brown signed bill SB853 yesterday, which includes a provision to issue another 15,000 green HOV stickers (raising the total cap to 55,000). The ARB site is not updated yet, but should be next week.

[Fat Fusion]

Just FYI, Gov. Brown signed bill SB853 yesterday, which includes a provision to issue another 15,000 green HOV stickers (raising the total cap to 55,000). The ARB site is not updated yet, but should be next week.

 

Bummer.

[jza80]

That is slightly annoying, I hurried my purchase by several months to make sure I obtained stickers, one week after my purchase Ford started offering 0% APR for 60/mo (I got 0.9%), and probably other incentives I don't want to know about...

 

Oh well, I really like the car and I am amazed at the number of Fusion Energies in my area.  I see at least one on the road almost daily and that is not counting my neighbor who just brought home a new Grey Fusion Energi SE.

[Energitic]

InsideEVs reports that the CA senate has approved another 15,000 stickers, bringing the total to 70,000. It is expected that the State Assembly will vote in favor as well. This is likely the final allocation, and the stickers are projected to run out sometime around the end of this year.

 

http://insideevs.com/california-senate-clears-path-additional-15000-green-hov-stickers/

[Kybuck]

Well, there goes the marginal benefit to the HOV lane during peak traffic periods (at least for my commute)... oh well.

[jza80]

The new set of stickers are going fast, there are less than 3,000 stickers left as of Aug 25.  

[thinkcooper]

Another Green Sticker SF Bay Area Energi driver here. I start a great gig in Mountain View on Monday February 9th. I'm commuting from Santa Cruz (about 35 miles each way). My local SC dealer had a couple of Titanium Energis on the lot, so I picked one up, along with the stickers two weeks ago, in anticipation of the commute. Wow I'm digging this car. And to get stickers out the door was a complete score. I'd been lusting after an Energi since they were first released, hence my early join date, now I'm stoked to have one, and have a real reason to need it.

[Energitic]

InsideEVs reports that the green stickers are about to run out in the next couple of weeks (and there is now little chance of still getting them for new buyers since there is a registration backlog at the DMV). This time, it is unlikely that the number of stickers will be extended again. I wonder what this will do to sales of the FFE and other plugins.

 

Anyway, happy to have my stickers. :) They are saving me a lot of time and nerves ...

[Blastphemy]

I found this 2015 bill that passed the CA Senate, was referred to the Assembly on May 22nd, and is currently in the Transportation Committee:

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB39

If you're a California resident, I would suggest writing to your representative in the Assembly and asking him/her to support this bill.