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Electric vehicles in BC now allowed to use HOV lanes-with only 1 occupant/driver

CougarKing

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I wonder if this applies if you drive a hybrid vehicle like a Honda Insight or a Toyota Prius?

Vancity Buzz

Electric vehicles now permitted to drive on HOV lanes in B.C.
By
Kenneth Chan
12:36 PM PST, Wed March 02, 2016

Electric vehicle drivers in British Columbia will now be able to use any of the province’s high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, without any passengers.

The announcement was made at the GLOBE Conference today held at the Vancouver Convention Centre, which was also attended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and most of Canada’s provincial premiers ahead of tomorrow’s First Ministers’ Conference.

(...SNIPPED)
 
S.M.A. said:
I wonder if this applies if you drive a hybrid vehicle like a Honda Insight or a Toyota Prius?

Vancity Buzz

If it's anything like it was here in Virginia, they would be included. Up until a couple of years ago, any zero emission vehicle was exempt from the HOV regulations. They were issued special clean fuel plates so they weren't pulled over for violations.

They pulled the exemptions a couple of years ago when they started moving to High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes where you could use them with less than the required number if you paid a toll.
 
"Vehicles that rely on gas-electric hybrid motors and do not plug into an external source are not eligible to receive the HOV pass decal", says a government statement.
 
cupper said:
They pulled the exemptions a couple of years ago when they started moving to High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes where you could use them with less than the required number if you paid a toll.

I never understood this two tier system on the road. I can get behind HOV lanes, but charging a fee to use a roadway constructed by taxpayer money just seems like double dipping...
 
Flavus101 said:
I never understood this two tier system on the road. I can get behind HOV lanes, but charging a fee to use a roadway constructed by taxpayer money just seems like double dipping...

I could never understand how taking additional lanes for carpooling resolves traffic congestion. Particularly if you are building those lanes from existing rights of way. A larger pipe will allow a larger volume of water to move through at the same pressure, or allow the same volume of water to move through with less pressure. But when you introduce a restriction in the larger pipe, you reduce or negate the increase in capacity. This becomes more so when you put a cash value on that available excess capacity.

The concept of the HOV lane is also based on the assumption that more people will carpool to save money and time, thus reducing the numbers of cars on the road. But it also assumes that the commuters are willing to carpool. Having spent the past 15 years living in one of the highest congestion regions in the US, HOV lanes, and now HOT lanes have not reduced the existing congestion. The biggest problem is that the infrastructure has not kept up with growth, and the system in some sections was already built out to it's maximum, and additional lanes actually reduced capacity.

Add to the problem the concept of congestion pricing in what is essentially a commuter society. It only acts as a disincentive to use the extra capacity on tolled lanes.
 
I do not think your water analogy is being applied quite correctly. If each car represents one molecule of water you would, in theory, save space by taking 4 molecules of water away and combining them into one dense molecule of water? Is that not what the HOV lanes are meant to do? Now in practice this probably doesn't work in such a neat and tidy manner. I grew up in the country and currently reside in a city that doesn't do the HOV lane thing so I have limited exposure to it.
 
S.M.A. said:
I wonder if this applies if you drive a hybrid vehicle like a Honda Insight or a Toyota Prius?

Vancity Buzz

Excellent.

The other half of the road is occupied with bike lanes in Vancouver, so now all the champagne socialists can head downtown to hang out at Starbucks together without getting in each others' way :)
 
When I win the lottery I will use this to go down the HOV lane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUBKcqoaZqY
 
Flavus101 said:
I do not think your water analogy is being applied quite correctly. If each car represents one molecule of water you would, in theory, save space by taking 4 molecules of water away and combining them into one dense molecule of water? Is that not what the HOV lanes are meant to do? Now in practice this probably doesn't work in such a neat and tidy manner. I grew up in the country and currently reside in a city that doesn't do the HOV lane thing so I have limited exposure to it.

Actually traffic flow analysis generally uses hydraulic flow theory to generate models.

The problem is that HOV lanes are only open to vehicles with two or more passengers depending on what the particular restrictions are. So you are restricting the flow into that set of lanes, or pipeline. HOT lanes give drivers the option to pay a toll rather if they don't have the minimum number of passengers.

The assumption is that drivers / passengers will group together and use those lanes, thus resulting in a reduced number of vehicles in the regular lanes. In practice that rarely happens, as people prefer the convenience of driving on their own terms rather than having to work around other people's needs.

Living in the Washington DC region, I've taken advantage of the new HOT lanes on the Virginia side of the Beltway during evening rush, even though congestion pricing can put  the tolls as high as $8.00 for the section I use. I drive 65 mph (the posted speed  :nod: ) in the two HOT lanes, zipping past commuters stuck crawling at 15 to 20 mph in the four regular lanes.

The other thing about your analogy is that you may be thinking passengers and rather than cars. With carpooling you are combining passengers, not cars, so you won't get an equivalent 1 to 1 correlation between passengers added in one car and a corresponding decrease in the number of cars on the road. And that becomes more significant as the HOV passenger minimum goes up.
 
I despise HOV lanes in Ottawa.  For the most part they are of short length and may move some traffic along at a quicker speed, only to come to a loggerhead within a few kilometers as they merge once again into normal traffic.  The City of Ottawa has one HOV lane on the 174 between Blair and "the Split" that is less than half a kilometer long.  Absolute madness.
 
Colin P said:
When I win the lottery I will use this to go down the HOV lane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUBKcqoaZqY

That's a lot of trips to Point Roberts for you to buy US Powerball lottery tickets...  ;)

Kind of hard to compete in buying Lotto 6/49 tickets here in Richmond, BC, when recent Chinese investor immigrants buy tickets by large numbers...  :crybaby:
 
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