Hybrid cars and car pool lanes

Legislation by lawmakers from California that would allow states to make their own rules for hybrids in car pool lanes was co-sponsored by two California legislators on Tuesday.

“This is a bill whose time has very much come,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who co-sponsored the legislation with Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif.

If enacted, the legislation would enable a California law letting hybrids in the carpool lanes — even without passengers — to take effect. Other states including Arizona, Connecticut and Georgia are contemplating similar laws and are following the California legislation closely.

In an article by MSNBC it was noted "Hybrid cars “are allowing us to enhance the environment, reduce air pollution in California, and yet we’re not allowed to do this,” Issa said. “This bill will allow that to happen, not just in California but for all 50 states.”"

As hybrids become more popular, the legislation does pose some problems. For example, a Virginia law allowing hybrids into car pool lanes resulted in such huge sales that carpoolers have begun complaining of bumper-to-bumper traffic.

The California law would require that any hybrid achieve 45 mpg to qualify for car pool status. At this time only the Honda Civic hybrid, Honda Insight and Toyota Prius qualify.

The Honda Accord hybrid and the Ford Escape hybrid would not qualify under the current legislation. Thus, Ford is fighting the legislation, arguing for just a 10 percent gain in efficiency to qualify for car pool lane entrance.

With the problems in Virginia, that seems like a bad move. Still, it is disappointing that the Escape doesn't qualify. Rather than a minimum mpg, a different standard might need to be utilized.

While I am not a fan of SUVs, simply because the design is just, well, inefficient, many Americans demand SUVs. Fine, as long as they are fuel-efficient. Hybrid SUVs, such as the Escape hybrid, and the soon-to-be-released Lexus RX400h hybrid and Toyota Highlander hybrid each achieve fuel-efficiency gains of around 30 percent.

Those kinds of gains are also very important.

Once again; however, offering car pool status to hybrid SUVs - with their popularity - almost certainly would flood the car pool lanes of California. So it's hard to say how much impact this legislation can have in the long run.