[IP] more on Hybrid Sticker Shock...
Begin forwarded message:
From: Jason Weisberger <jweisberger@xxxxxxx>
Date: August 26, 2005 6:55:57 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Ip Ip <ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [IP] Hybrid Sticker Shock...
Forget the stickers, lets discuss the hassle...
My wife drives a Prius. I drive a Highlander Hybrid. My wife can have
the stickers and drive in the HOV lanes, I can not. I have not read a
good reason from the State as to why the Highlander Hybrid doesn't
make the grade, but I have heard it is due to mileage not being good
enough, regardless the lower emissions.
The real deal in this is how many hoops the DMV is requiring my wife
go through to get the stickers...
Thus far she had to fill out a bunch of forms with then required her
to find her Fastrack (a NorCal track your car and take your tolls
device) account number. Once she sent this in she had to wait for a
her stickers, right?
Wrong.
A form letter comes back from the DMV stating she does not have a
Hybrid specific transpoder for her Prius, which they just created and
didn't mention you'd need. Please get one and resubmit.
I have to go in person to the Fastrack Customer Care center for her,
as she works no where near one. There is a line out the door of Prius
owners who want their stickers being forced to swap the transponder.
The transponder is identical to the old one. I am sure the only
difference is that is in the database as associated with a Hybrid and
has a green dot on it, like you can buy at supermarket for writing
prices on garage sale items. Why they can't handle this via data
entry, unknown. The confusion and trouble the Fastrack folk had to
deal with was amazing. They didn't know much about the whys and hows
of the process, just to hand out the new transponders. Take a screen
shot of the new account info and print it out.
We are now told to mail the screenshot back to the DMV and we will
get the stickers.
Why do we need the transponder, if the stickers will identify us? Are
they tracking Hybrids to see if Hybrid owners trend towards certain
locales?
Why knows what is next...
On Aug 26, 2005, at 10:58 AM, David Farber wrote:
Begin forwarded message:
From: Paul Saffo <psaffo@xxxxxxxx>
Date: August 26, 2005 1:53:51 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Hybrid Sticker Shock...
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-
hybrid26aug26,0,4255193.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Sticker Shock for Owners of Hybrids
Drivers of the fuel-efficient cars are unhappy with the size of new
decals that allow them to drive solo in carpool lanes.
By Amanda Covarrubias
Times Staff Writer
August 26, 2005
They're big. They're ugly. They're offensive. So say owners of the
hybrid Toyota Prius — not about larger gas-guzzlers that hog the
road but about the decals the state is handing out that allow
hybrid owners to drive solo in carpool lanes.
Prius owners cheered when Congress approved solo driving in carpool
lanes last month.
But a growing number of drivers are now protesting because the
California Highway Patrol is requiring that four bright yellow
decals — 7 by 3 inches and 5 by 2 inches in size — be displayed on
their cars.
Prius owners are a famously prideful bunch, known to honk
approvingly when a fellow Prius driver passes by on the road, and
the idea of marking up their cars isn't sitting well.
The decals have been the talk of Prius Internet chat rooms, and one
owner has set up an online petition protesting the policy.
"I, for one, will not be decoupaging my red car with these yellow
stickers!" said Mitchell Rose, a filmmaker from Hollywood who has
owned his Prius for more than a year.
"The DMV person who designed the stickers and determined their
placement has been watching too much NASCAR," added Jan Strnad, a
Prius owner who lives in Mar Vista. "By the time you have four
stickers on your car — two of which are huge — you feel as if you
should be getting paid for the advertising."
State officials said the four stickers were needed so that Caltrans
workers could easily monitor the new program from various vantage
points.
They pointed out that it could be a lot worse. Federal standards
allow identifying stickers to be as large as 12 by 18 inches.
CHP officials said the bright yellow color has a purpose. Hybrids
will use yellow tags, while electric and natural gas vehicles —
which are also allowed to drive solo in the carpool lanes — display
three white decals with the same dimensions.
State officials considered allowing decals on windows but ruled it
out because they would not be visible if the windows were rolled down.
But critics say the sticker rules are overkill.
"They make the car look like a traveling circus," said Bob McGraw,
a Buena Park sound electrician who started the petition effort and
who paid nearly $100 to have a special protectant sprayed on his
car so that he doesn't have to wax it every week.
"It's not just a car to me," he said. "It's a statement. It's a
statement that I take pride in my vehicle."
Some drivers are using Velcro and other materials to temporarily
affix the decals to their cars, with varying degrees of success.
Strnad said he grudgingly stuck them on his Prius after carefully
waxing the area for easier removal later.
The larger ones go on the panels behind the rear wheels and the
smaller ones on the front and back bumpers.
"I have to admit this is a perk we're being given, and it's not a
life or death situation," said Strnad, a writer. "If you don't want
to put stickers on and accept the perk, it's not that big of a deal."
But some question why so many decals are necessary.
"All the HOV lanes are on the left-hand side of the roadways," said
Veronica Bach, a comedy cabaret performer who lives in Hollywood
and has owned her burgundy Prius for three weeks. "Why should there
even be any stickers on the left-hand side of the car?"
Assemblywoman Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) who co-sponsored the
bill that allows Prius, Honda Insight and Honda Civic drivers to
drive solo in the carpool lanes, said her office had received
several phone calls and e-mails about the stickers.
At least one driver said the sticker controversy was much ado about
nothing.
"I think the 'outrage' over the stickers is more than a little
silly," Prius owner Jon Miller of Altadena said in an e-mail. "The
decals are not attractive by any means, but neither are they the
end of Western civilization, nor are they a conspiracy to humiliate
hybrid owners."
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