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Clean Air Vehicle Decals - minimum occupancy requirements
- Thread starter churin
- Start date
Key word bolded, italicized, and underlined.
Those minimum occupancy requirements vary, but they will be posted. If you're down in the south bay, usually 2. If you're up near Hercules, usually 3.
Just being a "Clean Air Vehicle" is not enough. Legally speaking, you must either have the occupancy to be in an active HOV lane, or you must have the labels (excluding odd exceptions such as under the direction of a police officer, etc etc).
My understanding about HOV as follows:
HOV lane can be used if the vehicle is occupied by two or more people regardless of whether the vehicle is Clean Air Vehicle or not. Clean Air Vehicle is allowed to use HOV even with only one occupant but the Decals are required for the vehicle.
Further clarification is appreciated.
HOV lane can be used if the vehicle is occupied by two or more people regardless of whether the vehicle is Clean Air Vehicle or not. Clean Air Vehicle is allowed to use HOV even with only one occupant but the Decals are required for the vehicle.
Further clarification is appreciated.
You should also get a FasTrak Flex transponder (the one with the switch to say how many people are in the car).
If you have an EV and valid decals, you can leave it set to the 3+ position at all times and use the express lanes.
I don't speak CA. Why would you need a special sticker to go in an HOV lane if you already have enough people. Are your HOV lanes tolled? Here in GA the EV plates allow you to use HOV lanes with just one person and some congested based toll lanes free of charge.
Yikes. By attempting to clarify, I confused. Special place in hell for people like me.
To travel in an active HOV/carpool lane (I say "active" because some are part-time and only HOV lanes from 7-10am and 4-7pm or similar, and are open-use otherwise.), you should be in at least one of the following categories:
1. Meet the posted occupancy requirements, which vary depending where you are. Some places require two people, some places require three (with an exception for 2-seat vehicles).
2. Have the magic stickers, and apply them per the instructions.
3. Be willing to pay a $490 fine + lose a point on your license.
If any one or more of the above are true? Have at it, unless otherwise directed by a law enforcement officer.
$490's is no joke. Do you have any toll lanes that vary the rate based on congestion so that the toll lanes is always moving quickly? W have a few of those and the rates can vary from $1.00 to $35.00 based on traffic congestion and how many people are willing to pay to get into the faster toll lane?
Yeah there are some of those around as well.
The $490 is sort of a joke because there's very little enforcement. One of my team members used to take the HOV lane to and from work every day under the theory that if he got caught a couple of times it'd balance out because of time savings. For something like 2 years of working with me, he never once got in trouble for it.
According to CA DMV, here's their definition: "The program authorizes a vehicle that meets specified emissions standards to be issued a CAV decal to allow single occupancy use of High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV or carpool) lanes."
I had a client (I'm an insurance broker) that had 8 or 9 HOV violations. He kept crossing the Golden Gate bridge without the required occupants.
More context:
- Carpool lane use may be restricted at any time by the California Department of Transportation and federal law for all CAVs carrying fewer occupants than the posted minimum requirement, if their presence contributes to increased traffic congestion, increased travel times, decreased sustained travel speeds, or other factors affecting any carpool lane or segment of that lane.
- CAVs that meet the posted minimum occupancy requirements for carpool lanes are not subject to the above restrictions.
The above appears to indicate that I with my wife can drive on HOV along ,for example, 101, 85, 280, etc without CAV decals on the car, and if I want to access the HOV lane while driving myself or my wife alone CAV decals are required.
For CA drivers... The way I would describe it is... If you have an electric car and don't have a valid carpool sticker... You're just a normal car.
So if you just bought a car and you are waiting for your sticker... You're just a normal car (lots of new single occupant Teslas without even plates yet, let alone stickers are in CA carpool lanes)
If you have an expired color (green, white, yellow) you're just a normal car.
If you have a red or purple sticker... You can use the lanes even with 1 person... But as someone else said it is best to get a Fast Trek Flex pass where you can leave the switch in the '3' so you can also use the 'toll lanes' in addition to the car pool lanes
So if you just bought a car and you are waiting for your sticker... You're just a normal car (lots of new single occupant Teslas without even plates yet, let alone stickers are in CA carpool lanes)
If you have an expired color (green, white, yellow) you're just a normal car.
If you have a red or purple sticker... You can use the lanes even with 1 person... But as someone else said it is best to get a Fast Trek Flex pass where you can leave the switch in the '3' so you can also use the 'toll lanes' in addition to the car pool lanes
This is no longer true as of March 1, 2019. You no longer get to use the Metro Expresslanes (LA Area) for free - you just get a discount. You're now required to set the switch to the number of occupants in the vehicle for all cars (CAV and ICE).
From: Metro ExpressLanes
- All clean air vehicles must set the switch on their FasTrak transponder to indicate the actual number of people in the vehicle for a given trip. CAVs are no longer allowed to use the 2 or 3+ transponder switch settings unless that many persons are present in the vehicle. Any CAVs incorrectly using the 2 or 3+ switch setting without that many occupants in the vehicle will be subject to CHP citation.
