Politics for Pros- moderated Message Board

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next

From: LindyBill	1/17/2005 2:11:59 PM
	Read Replies (3) of 793859

I guess this would be a good reason if you, like Kholt and CB, lived near DC and had to commute. Wizbang blog - Pimp My Ride We've covered the topic of hybrid vehicles a couple times here at Wizbang, but this week I'm making the leap and buying a hybrid. Why? It's not environmentalism or a burning desire for better fuel mileage that informs my decision, though those are nice side benefits. The real reason is that use of HOV lanes. Northern Virgina does not have a lot of them, but it seems like most of them are on my path to the office. Worst of all is that Interstate 66 is HOV only in at rush hour inside the Capital Beltway. The interesting factoid about hybrids use of the HOV lanes (which may expire in July 2006) is Virginia may depress the market for these vehicles by removing their HOV exemption, all in the interest of keeping carpoolers happy. At this point VDOT hasn't committed to renewing the allowance for hybrids in HOV lanes when it expires in 2006. They're worried that HOV lanes would be overcrowded by the vehicles. Aside from the fact that the overcrowding is still a myth, the better question is by what right the carpoolers claim exclusive province of the HOV lanes? The reason behind the lanes creation are clear - reducing emissions. There's no mandate to make commuting easier for groups of 2 or 3, the only mandate is that the big cities reduce pollution levels. The commuting convenience is a nice byproduct. In that light 3 single passenger hybrid zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) are preferable to one three passenger vehicle producing more emissions than the three hybrids combined. Of course this will produce howls of outrage among carpoolers who have grown accustom to using the less traveled HOV lanes. The thing is I have no sympathy for their position - HOV was designed to keep emission producing cars of the road by hanging a nice carrot in front of drivers. With the advent of low or zero emission vehicles that reward structure needs to be re-evaluated by transportation policy makers. I haven't checked by I'd suspect that major metro areas are still under orders from the EPA to reduce emissions and hybrids and HOV's are both paths toward that goal. Preferring one over the other seems counter productive. As to their concerns of carpoolers about crowded HOV lanes I say, "welcome to the commuting world the rest of us live in"

Report TOU Violation

Share This Post

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next