Too many colors! (HOV Access stickers)

[henchook]

We're all for Pride in California, but this is going too far. It's time to end the madness.

This is fast becoming a management nightmare.
There are no less than five different HOV stickers with different colors, and they all require that you place four stickers on your car, front & back.

The "normal" color-coded registration stickers that you place on the corners of your license plate are tiny, just 0.5x1.5in and I would argue that serve a more important purpose (verifying you're driving a registered/inspected vehicle) than carpool abuse.

It's almost as if there are two separate bureaucracies in the state - one that wants to encourage EVs and created the HOV lane incentive, and a second that wants to discourage EVs by making it so cumbersome (file a snailmail form, wait >1month, apply multiple stickers that expire, un-expire, etc.).

Why can't you just have special license plate number / suffix / sticker / color?

Is there a process to file a complaint about this?

 

[Buddy]

I thought I was alone in this.

Registration stickers also have the month or year printed on them.

Anyone who thinks most cops will know that white just expired but red is good, and purple, and whatever the next color is...but then red goes bad first..


Imagine in 5 years when yellow, green, white, and red are bad.

But purple, black, brown and grey are valid.


This new color every year wont work.

 

[TT97]

White, green and yellow all expired. Only red and purple are active. Eventually there will be up to 4 colors active at one time.

I'm sure cops can remember four colors.

 

[Buddy]

White, green and yellow all expired. Only red and purple are active. Eventually there will be up to 4 colors active at one time.

I'm sure cops can remember four colors.

Theres a video somewhere of a cop pulling over a Tesla Model 3 for the center display. He thought it was a computer. No offense to the CHP but they have a lot of laws to enforce, remembering which 4 color hov stickers are valid isnt a priority.


Talk a CHP guy and ask him if that's what he looks at when watching for carpool violators.

Typically it's just speeding anyway.

If I have a white sticker on my car, I could also have a passenger in the back seat and still be legal.

They wont just be able to pull over vehicles with the wrong color sticker.

 

[Russell]

I don't see what the commotion is about.
You should only have 1 set of stickers visible on your car at any time, not all 5.

 

[TT97]

Theres a video somewhere of a cop pulling over a Tesla Model 3 for the center display. He thought it was a computer. No offense to the CHP but they have a lot of laws to enforce, remembering which 4 color hov stickers are valid isnt a priority.

The officer knew the law to enforce that you can't have a computer mounted on a center console. A CHP officer that is enforcing carpool violations knows which stickers are valid.

If I have a white sticker on my car, I could also have a passenger in the back seat and still be legal.

You don't need any sticker if you have a passenger in the back seat (assuming it is a 2+ carpool lane). Having a white sticker is no different than not having any sticker. The stickers give you a right to be in the carpool lane without any passengers.

 

[Buddy]

The officer knew the law to enforce that you can't have a computer mounted on a center console. A CHP officer that is enforcing carpool violations knows which stickers are valid.




You don't need any sticker if you have a passenger in the back seat (assuming it is a 2+ carpool lane). Having a white sticker is no different than not having any sticker. The stickers give you a right to be in the carpool lane without any passengers.

I understand and agree with you. My point is that as years go by there will be 5,6,7,8 or more HOV color stickers on the road, half of which will be expired.

Theres no year date on the stickers so every year when a new color comes out, the will need to learn which color expired and which new color is valid.

 

[TT97]

I understand and agree with you. My point is that as years go by there will be 5,6,7,8 or more HOV color stickers on the road, half of which will be expired.

Theres no year date on the stickers so every year when a new color comes out, the will need to learn which color expired and which new color is valid.

The problem is the stickers need to be visible from afar for enforcement. They could send everyone four new stickers every year and only have one color active at any time but I see that as an even worse bureaucratic nightmare (and there will still be plenty of people driving around with the expired stickers that don't qualify anymore). Having a small sticker on the license plate wouldn't be visible enough.

There will always be at most 4 active stickers and since the program sunsets 9/30/25, there will only be 3 more new colors. I don't see them extending the program any further after 2025 due to the EVs that will be in circulation by then.

 

[derkan]

White, green and yellow all expired. Only red and purple are active. Eventually there will be up to 4 colors active at one time.

I'm sure cops can remember four colors.

Well the YEAR sticker on the license plate is also color coded. Why didn't they somehow align the carpool decal colors with the year colors to make it easier to remember for cops.

I understand and agree with you. My point is that as years go by there will be 5,6,7,8 or more HOV color stickers on the road, half of which will be expired.

Yes I agree, and BTW there is no requirement to remove expired stickers from cars, which leaves ugly residue anyway.

 

[gilscales]

I have it on good authority that hot pink is next!

 

[arcus]

One would think that a state that is home to Silicon Valley would be able to come out with more appropriate way to ensure legitimacy of HOV usage than the fugly stickers. Something, you know, more 21st century-like.

 

[r0xx0r]

Talk a CHP guy and ask him if that's what he looks at when watching for carpool violators.

Typically it's just speeding anyway.

Violators in my area are including many solo Tesla’s rider without any sticker. They just assume that driving a Tesla means ZEV means HOV access. They seems dont have any problem with corps.

 

[stickerknight]

Necessary evil at this point in time? I held out for month before giving in and plastering red stickers on my car. I read about the sticker residue issue and wanted a solution. First tried hand cutting ppf sticker base myself, which I ended up screwing up one of my stickers, so then looked to machine cutting stickers and viola! Still hideous but I've tried to place them as line conforming as possible so they aren't as much of an eye sore. And I got lucky, red on red If you decide to give in as well, let me help you! StickerKnight

 

[techweenie]

Wanting to revive this old thread: I bought a used Model S with red stickers that are about to become invalid. As BEVs get different colored stickers now that remain valid, I'm wondering about applying for different stickers. The REG 1000 application isn't exactly clear about how that might be done.
Anyone have success upgrading from red HOV stickers?

 

[Falcon73]

This thread didn't know about Orange or Blue when it was started, lol. And what's the next color?

So red is going out the door in a week or so? I didn't think any renewal was possible but I never got that far with a car.

I'm still waiting on my CAV decal set for our MYLR. It's still a slower than ever snail mail process.

 

[Need]

Wanting to revive this old thread: I bought a used Model S with red stickers that are about to become invalid. As BEVs get different colored stickers now that remain valid, I'm wondering about applying for different stickers. The REG 1000 application isn't exactly clear about how that might be done.
Anyone have success upgrading from red HOV stickers?

It is a one time deal. You can't upgrade HOV sticker. My wife's Model X has the red sticker too. She already announced that she will be driver mine with the lavender sticker next year LOL. After next year, neither one of us will be driving alone in the HOV lane.

 

[mociaf9]

Anyone have success upgrading from red HOV stickers?

Not possible. 1 sticker per vehicle life. It doesn't matter how many different owners there are, each car only gets one bite at the apple. So if a VIN has had stickers associated with it in the past, that's it for that car even if/when it's sold to a new owner.

 

[Russell]

Wanting to revive this old thread: I bought a used Model S with red stickers that are about to become invalid. As BEVs get different colored stickers now that remain valid, I'm wondering about applying for different stickers. The REG 1000 application isn't exactly clear about how that might be done.
Anyone have success upgrading from red HOV stickers?

Used EVs can get new stickers.


The Income-Based (IB) CAV Decal Program
The IB CAV decal program may allow a new vehicle owner of a used vehicle that was previously issued a CAV decal prior to January 1, 2017, to be issued a CAV decal, valid until January 1, 2024, if the new owner meets the following criteria:

• The new, current registered owner is not the owner of the vehicle when the decals issued prior to January 2017, expired.
• The applicant’s total annual household income is at or below $72,080 (this amount is subject to change).
• Total Annual Household Income requires the disclosure of the annual income of all members of the household, age 17 and older, who reside together and share common living expenses regardless if they are related.
• The new registered owner name(s) matches DMV records.

Clean Air Vehicle Decals - California DMV

If you drive a vehicle that meets certain emissions standards and other criteria, you may be able to get Clean Air Vehicle (CAV) decals and a CAV decal identification (ID) card, which allow single occupancy use of High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV, or carpool) lanes.

www.dmv.ca.gov

 

[mociaf9]

Interesting, I wasn't aware of that. The last time I looked at the rules for the CAV decals that wasn't an option I read about and I don't remember seeing any talk of that program being newly instituted. Thanks.

 

[cwerdna]

This thread didn't know about Orange or Blue when it was started, lol. And what's the next color?

From another thread and confirmed at

https://twitter.com/x/status/1470520046791401475

, the next one is yellow, which is weird. I wonder if it'll look significantly different than long expired non-plugin hybrid ones from ages ago (I had those on my former 06 Prius).