Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Driving in HOV lane without sticker

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I am curious if anyone driving a Tesla without carpool stickers has ever been pulled over and ticketed. All Teslas are clean air vehicles and all carpool stickers in CA will expire in 2025 regardless of when they were issued so theoretically they should not care. I know people who always drive in carpool lane solo with an ICE car and have never been pulled over.
 
I am curious if anyone driving a Tesla without carpool stickers has ever been pulled over and ticketed. All Teslas are clean air vehicles and all carpool stickers in CA will expire in 2025 regardless of when they were issued so theoretically they should not care. I know people who always drive in carpool lane solo with an ICE car and have never been pulled over.
I'm sure plenty have. A quick Google search turned up Got A Ticket From Chp For Not Having Hov Stickers and how many traffic tickets have you got since getting an m3?, for example.

The bolded part is incorrect. Many CA HOV stickers expire earlier or have already expired (e.g. old yellow, green, white, red). See Clean Air Vehicle Decals for Using Carpool and HOV Lanes - California DMV for expiration dates. Some people may not apply and others may be waiting.

I never applied for them on my '19 Bolt because I barely travel in CA HOV lanes during restricted hours anyway and wanted to wait years so that the sticker was still valid until Sept 2025 vs. having the clock start in 2019 and the purple sticker expiring on 1/1/23. I'm in the middle of a buyback on my Bolt (longer story) so I probably won't bother, for now. If my buyback gets rejected I might wait longer to see if there might be changes (e.g. yet another color with an expiration further out).
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Zebelkhan
They just announced a re-issue of the Yellow sticker valid through the end of the HOV sticker program on 9/30/25 (vs the blue ones which are 1/1/2025).
Yes, I know.

Current Clean Air Vehicle Decal | California Air Resources Board has stated "All decals expire on September 30, 2025" for at least a year but the color was previously to be determined (Current Clean Air Vehicle Decal | California Air Resources Board) until a few days ago.

Finally, we saw some tweets from a CA gov account about yellow and that page got updated to indicate yellow, which is a funny rehash given that the non-plugin hybrid stickers from ages ago were yellow. I had those old (long expired) yellow stickers on my former 06 Prius.
 
I am curious if anyone driving a Tesla without carpool stickers has ever been pulled over and ticketed. All Teslas are clean air vehicles and all carpool stickers in CA will expire in 2025 regardless of when they were issued so theoretically they should not care. I know people who always drive in carpool lane solo with an ICE car and have never been pulled over.
Some stickers expired before. You risk getting pulled over if not correct stickers.
 
Yes, I know.

Current Clean Air Vehicle Decal | California Air Resources Board has stated "All decals expire on September 30, 2025" for at least a year but the color was previously to be determined (Current Clean Air Vehicle Decal | California Air Resources Board) until a few days ago.

Finally, we saw some tweets from a CA gov account about yellow and that page got updated to indicate yellow, which is a funny rehash given that the non-plugin hybrid stickers from ages ago were yellow. I had those old (long expired) yellow stickers on my former 06 Prius.
Omg that yellow sticker would look ugly on white MY. I would sewap it with someone else’s blue sticker.
 
Omg that yellow sticker would look ugly on white MY. I would sewap it with someone else’s blue sticker.
LOL. My former 06 Prius was white and I had the (now long exipred) yellow HOV stickers on them. We had no choice. Clean Air Vehicle Decals for Using Carpool and HOV Lanes - California DMV confirms my memory that they were yellow the entire time. Issuance began in 2004 and they all expired 7/1/2011.

Carpool Stickers | California Air Resources Board says

Original Yellow Decals for Hybrids​

...
These decals were limited to the first 85,000 qualified applicants and are no longer valid. These vehicles cannot qualify for any other type of Clean Air Vehicle decal.

  • This law was initially enacted in 2004 (AB 2628) with an original expiration date of January 1, 2008
  • The final expiration date for Yellow decals was extended in 2006 to January 1, 2011 (AB 2600)
The above isn't quite right as they got extended again to July 1, 2011 (Yellow hybrid stickers for carpool lanes set to expire).
 
LOL. My former 06 Prius was white and I had the (now long exipred) yellow HOV stickers on them. We had no choice. Clean Air Vehicle Decals for Using Carpool and HOV Lanes - California DMV confirms my memory that they were yellow the entire time. Issuance began in 2004 and they all expired 7/1/2011.

Carpool Stickers | California Air Resources Board says

The above isn't quite right as they got extended again to July 1, 2011 (Yellow hybrid stickers for carpool lanes set to expire).
I had a used Silver Prius with yellow sticker, which I ironically purchased after it had expired but never removed them
 
Omg that yellow sticker would look ugly on white MY. I would sewap it with someone else’s blue sticker.
You cannot sewap stickers - they are numbered and assigned to your VIN. I mean you surely can, but forgery is much costlier violation than driving in carpool lane that you shouldn't be driving in.

I worked with a smart person who used 2 stickers on one car, and 2 on an ICE car. Having less than 4 stickers is a violation on it's own (if you've been in accident and sticker is damaged - it's 22 dollars to request a new set) and a big red flag for cops to catch people like them:)
 
Sticker is so cops can verify if you are driving a real tesla or not.

for instance this guy who put an engine in his tesla

or these people putting body kits to make their car/truck look like a cyber truck Fake Tesla Cybertrucks are popping up around the world

but you get the idea. Cops are dumb, they need things fed to them on a donut.

anyways, i'd just do it. if you get caught say that tomagucci said it was cool
 
The make and model of the car don't automatically authorize you to drive in the HOV lane, the decals do. Eligibility for the sticker depends not only on the model of the car, but may also be restricted by income caps, for example, if you have received the CVRP rebate.

If you aren't displaying the sticker you aren't authorized to use the HOV lane regardless of what kind of car you are driving (unless you have enough people in the car, of course).
 
Driving without an HOV sticker is the same as driving in the carpool lane without the required number of people. When I used to take 237 daily they would have CHP motorcycle cops sitting on the left shoulder looking for carpool violators, the bike cops would also lane split looking for violators. They even had CHP parked at the metering lights on some on ramps checking each car pulling up to the carpool metering light. Not worth the risk of the minimum $500 fine plus court fees and points just to get home sooner.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cwerdna and OCJeff
To me the reason to not put the stickers on is they are ugly. California should come up with a smaller decal that could fit on the license plates or something similar. Since I rarely need to use the carpool lane, my thinking is to simply attach them with tape to the windows of my car when I am on a trip that I expect to need to use the carpool lane. Technically CHP could pull me over since they are not in the right location, but I think they would have higher priorities than that. Just like I notice many cars, including many Teslas, driving around without a front license plate.