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Cars travel southbound on Virginia's Interstate 395 during rush hour traffic near the King Street exit in Arlington. All vehicles registered in Virginia |
By KELLY HANNON
A limited group of hybrid owners will likely have another year to use carpool lanes on Interstate 95 at rush hour, regardless of the number of people inside the car.
Both houses of the Virginia General Assembly have passed a bill extending the exemption for clean special fuel vehicles in High Occupancy Vehicle lanes.
The exemption was set to expire June 30, 2010. Now, if Gov. Bob McDonnell signs the bill, it will end on July 1, 2011.
All vehicles registered in Virginia bearing clean special fuel license plates can use High Occupancy Vehicle lanes regardless of their occupant numbers, except on I-95/395. On those interstates, vehicles with the speciality license plates must have been registered prior to July 1, 2006 to use the HOV lanes without passenger restrictions.
The 2006 limit for I-95/395 was set in 2005 by the General Assembly as a compromise measure, letting the lanes continue to be used by early adopters of the hybrid technology, but preventing them from being overrun by subsequent drivers.
The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles designed a new license plate so law enforcement officers could distinguish between them.
A portion of the proceeds from clean special fuel license plate sales goes to the Virginia State Police for HOV enforcement. Last year, the plates raised $293,955 for HOV enforcement.
The legislation would affect a small subset of Virginia drivers.
There are 12,430 vehicles in Virginia registered with clean special fuel licenses dating before July 1, 2006, according to Virginia DMV. After that date, there have been 10,014 vehicles registered with clean special fuel plates in Virginia.
Statewide, there are approximately 7.5 million registered vehicles.
The bill passed the House of Delegates 78-17 and the Senate 40-0.
Del. Mark Cole, R-Spotsylvania, voted against the exemption.
Cole said he had no objection to the exemption initially, for owners who bought the cars shortly after they were introduced, but said it should now be phased out.
"I expect maybe in a few years down the road hybrids might become the norm rather than regular gas-powered cars," Cole said.
Also, he objects to what he described as a "loophole" in the law as written.
A vehicle owner with a pre-July 2006 clean special fuel license plate can transfer their old plate to a new hybrid, and continue using the HOV lanes under the exemption. "It's kind of unfair the way it's written to people that buy a new hybrid now that didn't have one five years ago," Cole said.
Virginia House Speaker Bill Howell, who represents Fredericksburg and part of Stafford, mistakenly voted against the bill, said G. Paul Nardo, Howell's chief of staff. Howell supports extending the exemption, but pressed the wrong button during the vote, he said.
The legislative record will be amended to indicate Howell voted "nay" but intended to vote "yea."
Cole said he hears from constituents on both sides of the issue--hybrid owners who want to keep using HOV lanes, and carpool and vanpool riders in I-95's HOV lanes who oppose it.
"They're probably the most vocal group that wants to end it because they think it's fundamentally unfair," Cole said.
He acknowledged that, based on this year's vote, the exemption has strong support statewide.
"I don't think it'll be ended anytime soon," Cole said.
Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436
Email: khannon@freelancestar.com
