Do you remember when the Prius was an exotic new car that was loved by the Hollywood famous?
In
fact, the Prius was so revolutionary that it almost single handedly
defined the word "hybrid" and helped enact traffic laws around the
country that allowed solo drivers in the car pool lanes in some of
America's most congested cities.
It now looks like the hybrid
carpool party is over and those days are numbered…at least in California
which tends to lead the nation in such matters.
"The stickers granting that privilege to 85,000 hybrid owners are set to
expire Jan. 1, 2011. There are proposals in Sacramento to extend the
deadline, but they would exclude most of the vehicles that originally
qualified for the program, such as the Toyota Prius, the Honda Civic
hybrid and the original Honda Insight," according to the LA Times.
In fact cars with the stickers became so popular in California that a car pool stickered Prius would be worth as much as $2000.00 above the same car without the sticker.
"Now, lawmakers want to up the ante. A bill by Assemblyman Ted Lieu
(D-Torrance) that the Assembly passed this year would extend the
carpool lane exemption to 2016 but limit it to drivers of vehicles
powered by electricity, natural gas or some other alternative fuel.
A
competing Senate bill included hybrids but only those that achieve
city-highway fuel economy of 65 mpg or better — well beyond the
official ratings of the current crop of hybrids," the LA Times reports.
"What we're
saying is that the hybrid isn't good enough anymore," said Adam
Keigwin, chief of staff for Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), sponsor
of the Senate bill."
If history is any indication, the way that California leads in these matters is the way that many other states will eventually follow.
