Drivers face HOV lane sticker shock
Thousands of solo motorists in clean-air cars will lose decals in effort to relieve jams
Nearly 224,000 solo drivers stand to lose their green and white carpool stickers — permanently — on Jan. 1 in a seismic shakeup of the rules governing high-occupancy vehicle lanes.
Others will be unable to get new red replacement stickers because their incomes will be too high. And some express carpool lanes might require three or more people to ride free, while vehicles with two people inside may have to pay — but at a discount.
The new rules come courtesy of the state Legislature and the Air Resources Board, which are trying to address — in part — just how jammed with traffic carpool lanes have become.
There are 223,654 drivers statewide who received stickers before 2017 to drive solo in electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids or ones that can run on alternative fuels such as compressed natural gas. These drivers will be ineligible to extend their perk after Jan. 1 unless they purchase a new electric vehicle. Another 132,733 decals have been issued since then, and those motorists can apply for the new red stickers.
The change means nearly two of every three motorists who now have stickers will soon be traveling with all the drivers in the slowpoke lanes.
While transportation officials insist the changes are overdue, getting booted out of carpool lanes has many drivers exasperated.
“I’m really bummed out,” said Danny Shader of Palo Alto, whose 2015 Ford Fusion plug-in and daughter’s 2014 Chevy Volt have expiring green stickers. “It basically means that only people with the means to buy an expensive new electric car or who are willing to pay tolls can use the carpool lanes.”
Helen Gjerde of Saratoga got white stickers three years ago for her Tesla. “It’s a bad idea,” she said. “I’ll be ineligible for red stickers, even though I’m not polluting the atmosphere. I thought that was the reason for encouraging people to go electric.”
The new rules don’t address the biggest problem — the large number of cheaters who don’t fear the $491 ticket for an HOV lane violation. On some freeways, they number nearly 40 percent, Caltrans and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission said.
But tightening the rules on low- and no-emission vehicles will make the express lanes more effective for the folks they were actually meant to serve: carpoolers.
“The current system is definitely broke; right now the carpool lanes are losing,” said Stuart Cohen, executive of TransForm, a transportation advocacy group in Oakland. “Many of the Bay Area’s carpool lanes are slowing down 75 percent or more of the time. At that point, commuters lose all incentive
to carpool.
“Even worse, buses, carpools and shuttles that may be carrying five to 60 people per vehicle also come to a crawl. That means more solo driving and more congestion for everybody.”
Federal highway officials have been pushing Bay Area leaders to address the carpool Catch-22 for several years. Reining in the sticker perk for thousands
of motorists is one approach to keeping average speeds above 45 mph in carpool lanes, as required by federal law. Another one, also coming soon, is banning high-income drivers from purchasing decals — the cutoff will be $150,000 for single filers, $204,000 for head-of-household and $300,000 for joint filers.
There’s more. Planners in San Mateo County are considering raising the carpool requirement on Highway 101 to three people but giving those with just two people in a car half off their FasTrak toll-lane fees. The idea could spread to 101 in Santa Clara County and Interstate 880 in the East Bay.
Applications for carpool stickers soared 35 percent last year from 223,651 to 302,453. That was the biggest one-year increase ever, as more California drivers seek ways to beat maddening traffic jams choking the state. That’s up from a mere 69,554 five years ago.
The irony is that more clean-air cars with stickers, coupled with the rising number of out-of-control carpool lane cheaters, means clogged HOV lanes are going to remain bumper-to-bumper.
On Highway 237 west of Interstate 880, in a study last year an average of 36 percent of vehicles going westbound in the morning were clean-air vehicles.
One thing the state won’t do to clear out the express lanes is get rid of solo drivers who pay tolls for the privilege of driving there. Instead, look for the toll network to expand, because it helps pay to construct more such lanes.
Plans for 550 miles of express lanes in the region may entice even more solo drivers to pay a toll once those new lanes open. On Interstate 580 in the Livermore area where toll lanes opened two years ago, solo drivers willing to fork over as much as $9 for a toll now make up 66 percent of drivers in the express lane.
New decals will be valid until Jan. 1 of the fourth year after the year in which the decal was issued. None can be renewed. And unless the Legislature extends the program, it will end Sept. 30, 2025, when all decals issued after the start of 2022 also will expire.
“It is time to end that program to keep the carpool lanes meeting the federal speed standard,” former Caltrans traffic operations manager David Seriani said. “I believe those vehicles are very popular now and are being purchased for other benefits anyway. Access to carpool lanes are icing on the cake.”
Don’t tell that to Scott Matteoni, who commutes in his Chevy Volt from San Jose to Hayward along I-880. With his green stickers soon to be invalid, he’s considering buying a $30,000 electric Hyundai Kona to keep his carpool privileges.
“Big purchase,” he said. “I’m not a big fan of this decision.”