Da missus and I own a Toyota Prius. The other day, Vix decided to check whether Florida, where we live, was one of the states that allowed hybrids to drive in HOV lanes. She went online, found a link, and ended up at the Florida DMV website.
There, she found that Florida indeed allows hybrids to use HOV lanes … if they have a hybrid sticker issued by the Florida DMV. We have to fill out a form and get the sticker sent to us.
All the form requires is our VIN - no fees, nothing. And the whole point of the sticker is so that cops will know that the car is a hybrid.
But wouldn’t the cops know that by looking at the car? I mean, the sticker is no bigger than the logos plastered all over the car declaring it to be a hybrid.
My WAG on this is that the cops may or may not keep up to date on which makes and models of cars are hybrids, and even though the car may say “hybrid” or someting similar it’s not always in the same place on all cars.
If you have a uniform sticker on the back window they can tell at a glance that you’re authorized to be in the HOV lane and won’t bother you.
Of course, the problem with this is that it wouldn’t be too hard to make a copy of the sticker and place it on your non-hybrid vehicle also. If the cops are looking only for the sticker, and not at the make and model of car, then the system is relatively easy to get around.
I thought of that, but it don’t fly. Cars around here have gobs of window stickers. Up close, they look different, but to a cop sitting on the side of the interstate, they all look alike. A cop is going to have to (a) pull a car over to see if it is a hybrid or not, at which point the cop could just look at the hybrid logos all over the car, or (b) get close enough in traffic to read the hybrid sticker, at which point they are close enough to read the hybrid logos on the car.
California has the same deal, except ours requires something like an $8 fee. I haven’t done it yet because of that, and because I don’t find myself in heavy traffic where there’s an HOV lane very often (and when I do, I’m usually with someone, which would allow me use of it anyway).
Anyway, I digress. I had the same thought as you did, that it’s pretty obvious that a Prius is a hybrid. But with more of them coming out that look like their non-hybrid versions, it makes more sense for them.
While it’s obvious that a Prius is a hybrid, in California not all hybrid cars qualify for the HOV use stickers. . .
And not only do some hybrids qualify, but so do some other vehicles that are ZEV, ULEV, SULEV, ATPZEV or PZEV – and it’s quite an extensive list of qualifying vehicles (see the above link). I sure wouldn’t want the police to have to rely on memory alone as to whether certain vehicles meet the emission standards or not, because you just know they’d err on the side of caution, so-to-speak, and there’d be a lot of tickets written for qualified vehicles, which would then clog up the courts with everyone fighting them. I’ll pay the $8.00 for the sticker to save myself that aggravation, thanks.
There’s also a pretty extensive list of vehicles that qualify for the sticker in Florida, too. Again, not something I’d want highway patrol to have to rely on memory for.
Not sure why you think it’s free, though, since the application form says there’s a $5 fee (+$1 if you apply within 2 or more months prior to your birth month – what’s that about?).
Those acronyms got to me. I started to come up with definitions in my head:
ZEV … a hybrid vehicle driven by Reb Steinhart
PZEV … a hybrid vehilce driven by his teenage son, with learner’s permit (compare SAT and PSAT)
SULEV … a hybrid vehicle owned by the hypothetical couple George Takei and Walter Koenig
APTZEV … a hybrid vehicle so small you need not find a parking space, but can take it up to your condo on the elevator.
Am I the only one here paranoid enough to deduce the real reason immediately?
It’s so that they can (a) have an easy excuse to pull you over, allegedly to check if you have the sticker; and (b) since it sounds like not everyone is aware you’re required to have one, to write a (presumably expensive) ticket if you don’t have the sticker.
The point is not to show that you’re approved; the point is to make the necessity of the sticker obscure enough that lots of people with hybrids don’t realize they need one, thereby providing an easy means to add to whatever coffers the tickets are being written for.
Yeah, I’m cynical, but I did live in Jefferson Parish, LA around the corner from a speed trap that increased its activity by about 250% after the parish sheriff underwent gastric bypass surgery – hey, someone had to pay for it, and it sure wasn’t going to be the sheriff!
I meant to add to my last paragraph that at that speed trap, tickets were regularly written for missing or outdated brake tags, which required a $10 payoff to the garage of your choice and were remarkably easy to forget or not know about (we weren’t told about them at all when we registered our cars in Louisiana), but cost you a $30 ticket if said tag wasn’t current or was missing.
