Fortysomething Geek

My wife drives a C-Max Energi with the Green HOV decals. I drive a Fiat 500E with the White HOV carpool sticker. They both are entitled to be in HOV diamond carpool lanes but there is one big difference. Her car, along with the Plugin Prius, Chevy Volt, and Fusion Energi are not allowed to drive on the Bay Bridge with the discounted toll of 2ドル.50. They're suppose to pay 6ドル during commute time yet I see Plugin Priuses drive through the carpool toll everyday.

There is clearly confusion and no one knows. So if you are coming from Google or a search result with the phrase "Green HOV Bridge Toll", hopefully this page will set the record straight. Sorry Plugin Prius, you won't like what you will read.

People were confused because the old Caltrans 511 web page made references to white and yellow stickers. Since the yellow stickers expired, people thought that page was out-dated and assumed green stickers had the same privileges as white. This not a Green vs White HOV sticker debate, this is just the facts. Green HOV decals for plugin hybrids are not allowed to get discount toll as you will read on this page.

The California Clean Air Resource Board is the authority on this. On their FAQ, page:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/carpool/carpool.htm#FAQ


White stickers are defined as ILEV cars. Meaning, PURE Electric cars meet the Federal Inherently Low Emission standards. A Volt and Plugin Prius are TZEV, Transitional zero emissions. That is the key difference and those initials and definitions are very important in the eyes of the law.

So now, you must read the actual toll pages of the various bridges and you will see, it explicity states those benefits only apply to ILEV cars.AKA White Sticker cars like my Fiat 500E, Tesla Model S, RAV4EV or Nissan Leaf.

The Golden Gate Bridge goes as far as actually stating the decal color and who gets what.

http://goldengatebridge.org/tolls_traffic/toll_rates.php

The other bridges - Dumbarton, Carquinez,San Mateo, Oakland-SF Bay Bridge use the more technical terms. This is why people are confused. It doesn't specifically say the color and they don't use the blanket term, "clean air decal qualifies." Rather, the pages are very specific to the rules that the benefits only extend to ILEV cars with decals.

Links:

https://www.bayareafastrak.org/static/facilities/dumbarton.shtml
https://www.bayareafastrak.org/static/facilities/sm.shtml
https://www.bayareafastrak.org/vector/static/facilities/carq.shtml
https://www.bayareafastrak.org/vector/static/facilities/sfob.shtml

All those pages have this which I highlighted.




So there you have it. All these bridges are operated by the Bay Area Toll Authority.
On their website, http://bata.mtc.ca.gov/tolls/schedule.htm

INHERENTLY-LOW-EMISSION VEHICLES

• The Bay Area Toll Authority grants reduced rate passage on the above bridges to inherently-low-emission vehicles with DMV-issued decals, such as electric cars, that use FasTrak® to pay the toll.
• The reduced rate is the same as the reduced rate for high-occupancy vehicles and applies only during the hours when the reduced rate applies to high-occupancy vehicles.

So you can see, it is very clear what the rules are. ILEV cars like the Leaf and Fiat 500E get the discount. TZEV classified cars such as the Plugin Prius (PIP) are violating toll fare and those owners may not know it.
Both class of vehicles have the right to be in the Carpool lane but the problem is some of the toll lanes are physically isolated and the meter works on fastrak. Once your Plugin Prius or Chevy Volt gets to the fastrak toll, you don't have the option of switching to the normal toll meter without breaking a lot traffic violations; going over white lines and physical obstructions. As the famous KRON reporter, Stanley Roberts would say, you'd be "Behaving Badly."

At 4 miles per kWh, I need about 12.5 kW of energy charge everyday. I switched over to PG&E's EV-A EV car plan and get charged 0.9 cents (Winter)/10 cents (Summer) per kW. So at 10 cents per kWH X 12.5, my cost is 1ドル.25 each night. However, if you account for Utility taxes and the fact that there is a slight loss of energy being converted through the EVSE charger, I will round it up to 1ドル.50 per day.

Don't believe me? Well here is an average daily summary from PG&E. I have my two plugin cars charging at 11PM. My car takes 2 hours to charge while my wife's car takes 5 hours on 110. From 11PM to 1AM, I am well under 1ドル.50 for charging two cars and consuming electricity for the entire house.





So let me stress that again. 1ドル.50 for roughly 50 miles of commuting each and every day.
My Range Rover is a 15 MPG hog. I would need (3.3 gallons of California Premium @ 4ドル.25). In other words, 14ドル.03 each day to drive my SUV. Then add another 6ドル I have to pay for bridge toll, that comes to 20ドル a day to drive a SUV. My 1ドル.50 electric car adds another 2ドル.50 for discounted bridge toll and my day-to-day commute cost is less than 4ドル. This is cheaper than public transportation. I'm currently saving 16ドル a day in commute or 346ドル a month.

OK, a Fiat 500e vs Range Rover is an unfair comparison. My last commuter, a 30 MPG Mini Cooper would have cost 12ドル per day (with Bridge Toll) versus 4ドル. That is still a 8ドル a day savings or 173ドル a month. No matter what 'gas' car you want to compare this to, the cost to drive an Electric vehicle is inherently very low in California.

Besides the obvious financial rewards, driving the car has been interesting. I haven't encountered any range issues. My daily commute now consist of extra entertainment; watching people cheat the carpool lanes. Since DMV issued me a solo driver carpool sticker, I've been saving 20-45 minutes each way. Driving in the carpool lane, I'm seeing lots of cheats and people who try to evade the system. The abuse is pretty rampant in the early morning when it is still dark. In the veil of darkness, people will risk those 500ドル fines by driving illegally in the carpool lane. These cheats will weave in-and-out of traffic. They will also bow out of the lane where there are known police waiting spots. However, eventually, those habitual cheaters eventually get caught.

For reference, I've been watching Stanley Roberts, a local TV reporter who chronicle traffic cheats on his TV news segment, "People Behaving Badly." If you have a few minutes, these videos are pretty entertaining. I get to see this stuff everyday in real life.









There you have it. My 6 week experiences so far with the new California only Fiat 500e electric car.