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Kokua Line June Watanabe |
Hybrid cars so far
get no HOV clearanceQuestion: I have a friend who, like me, bought a hybrid car -- a Prius -- in Arizona. I was told Arizona allows hybrid cars, with their high mileage and their low emissions, in carpool lanes even with a single driver. I've also heard that several other states are doing the same thing. Has Hawaii done anything of the same sort? Is there any move afoot to do that, or has it already been done?
Answer: This is a topic of much discussion across the nation, but so far, hybrid vehicles are not given special dispensation to travel in high-occupancy vehicle lanes just for being hybrids, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration.
A hybrid vehicle combines the conventional internal combustion engine with the battery and electric motor of an electric vehicle. Although the result is fewer emissions -- as well as better mileage -- the emissions are not low enough under current federal standards to bypass the minimum two-occupant standard of HOV lanes.
The only exceptions to the minimum occupancy standard for HOV lanes are motorcycles, Inherently Low Emission Vehicles and single-occupant vehicles participating in an approved High Occupancy Toll project, the highway administration said.
The Environmental Protection Agency established the Inherently Low Emission Vehicles classification to recognize vehicles with no fuel vapor (hydrocarbon) emissions, and it is the only agency that can certify that classification, she said.
Hybrid vehicles do not meet the definition for Inherently Low Emission Vehicles, and the Federal Highways Administration does not have authority to grant additional exceptions, she said.
"Neither the alternative bi-fuel (gas/propane or gas/compressed natural gas) vehicles nor the hybrid (gas/electric) vehicles, currently on the market meet the ILEV standards set by EPA regulations," she said.
However, she added, the Transportation Department's surface transportation reauthorization proposal -- the Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003 -- would permit states to grant exceptions to the minimum occupancy requirement, basically allowing fuel-efficient and emissions-efficient vehicles to use HOV lanes.
"If our proposed language is enacted, states could consider allowing hybrid vehicles to use HOV lanes," she said.
If states "grant these exceptions, they shall limit or discontinue permitting these allowed vehicles from using HOV lanes, if the presence of specific types of vehicles seriously degrades the operation of individual HOV facilities or the entire HOV system," she said.
Although there are proposals on the federal level to open the door for hybrids in HOV lanes, there are no moves afoot locally, according to Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.
He did point out that Act 290, which took effect on July 1, 1997, does allow electric vehicles with special license plates to use HOV lanes, "which is in compliance with the federal statute" because electric vehicles have no vehicle emissions.
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