If you have a plug-in electric hybrid car like a Prius and want a coveted green sticker to drive solo in Bay Area carpool lanes, the news is not encouraging.
The state Legislature took no action last week on Assembly Bill 1964, which would extend the driving perk beyond 2019 or allow more green stickers above the currently capped 85,000 limit.
This year’s legislative session ended Wednesday, and state officials say it’s not known if the bill will be resurrected in the next session. There are now 6,500 drivers on a waiting list for the green decals.
The bill drew support in both the Assembly and Senate. There is a budget trailer bill supported by Gov. Jerry Brown that includes a proposal to eliminate the cap on green stickers altogether while retaining the Jan. 1, 2019 expiration date for both green and white stickers. There is no current cap on white stickers, which can be used by electric vehicles and those running on alternative fuels.
“AB 1964 reflects a tension between two positive outcomes: encouragement of EVs and other low-emission vehicles on the one hand, and encouragement of carpooling on the other,” said John Goodwin, a spokesman with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in San Francisco, explaining why the MTC opposes more cars being allowed in the region’s increasingly crowded carpool lanes.
“The commission’s view is that carpool lanes should be for legitimate carpools, buses and motorcycles, period; and that HOV-lane access for solo drivers ought not be among the incentives for EVs.”
California legislators have gotten an extension of 15,000 green stickers three times, raising the maximum limit to 55,000, then 70,000, now 85,000.
But average speeds on nearly half of the Bay Area’s 420 miles of carpool lanes are under 45 mph, failing to meet federal performance standards.
As a result, solo FasTrak users are banned from the Highway 237-Interstate 880 express lanes for up to an hour each morning. Transportation officials say the same restrictions are likely on future express lanes on other Bay Area freeways.
