Question for Hybrid drivers on HOV

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Originally posted by DC2RV
[br]Prior to driving your hybrids how did you commute? I'm just curious to know if previously, you were slug drivers, slug riders, carpoolers, metroriders, etc...

Thanks.

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I have commuted from PW to Alex for over 20 years. I used 95, the "back roads" through Clifton and Burke and rode the VRE.

In response to your question about how I used to commute prior to owning a Hybrid. I used to pick up slugs. I live in Stafford and my wife worked in Georgetown and then Ballston. So, we'd pick up a slug, drop them off either at the Pentagon, Crystal City, or Rosslyn, and then I'd drop my wife off and complete my commute to Tysons Corner. That probably took an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half to complete this one-way commute. And then, we'd do the same thing on the way back.

My wife then stopped working so it was just myself and so to circumvent the commute, we bought a hybrid so that I could take HOV up to the beltway and then take the beltway around to Tysons Corner. This has saved 20-30 minutes off of my commute. Plus, I got a tax brake for purchasing the hybrid plus I've saved a ton of money in gas.

So, it was a no-brainer decision for me.

I bought a Hybrid Honda Civic a couple of years ago. Prior to that I car pooled, slugged and I drove and picked up folks. I bought the Hybrid to simply save time. By avoiding the slug lines I shaved off almost 20 minutes of my commute from rte 17 each day. That being said I kept the Hybrid for about 18 months and then sold it for a Toyota Highlander and started taking the train, thinking that it would be easier to use the VRE to get to Crystal City. After about a year of pulling my hair out on the train due to every day delays I am back to picking up sluggs in my new car....a nice BMW I am happy to say!!

I originally began my hybrid research to purchase as a multi-faceted justification, mainly to assist me in my commute from fairfax to crystal city. Whenever possible i would meet relatives at my house (in greenbriar) hop on 66 at the stringfellow hov ramp and proceed to shoot up 66 to the glebe road exit where they worked, it was smoooth, and on the days where i couldn't carpool which became often, i started to wonder... and that was just to glebe road, usually i would continue on past the glebe road exit, with my carpoolers, and then have them drive BACK to work due to the fact that the "rest of the way" was still restricted and 29 was crap. Major General Hassle was not what we were all looking for [;)]. Before carpooling that route, generally i would use a combination of going up rt 29 all the way to 110 or rt 50 to 66, then off somewhere along the way at one of the exits when it got bad to come off at 495 and them hop right onto gallows, to 29 to 110. Then other "benefits" or should i say "justifications" kept the incentive to get one. Quick on and off of 66, hov lanes are much quicker, tax writeoff, better gas mileage, the cool gadget/car-nut aspect... etc.

However this was back in 2002.

That all changed over the course of the year or two i was commuting that route, for the most part directly up 66 from stringfellow to rt 110, in just 1 year it went from good to bad to worse. However alternatively i noticed the job market getting better and better, meaning more on the road meant better jobs, better economy, etc, the fact that we're doing so well, yet so bad on the roads is because people have to get to work and more jobs for me to try and get closer to home i hoped ;) Which now i commute to 7 corners, another fiasco, but i am on an alternate shift later in the day.

Since then every time i try to use 66 for hov, it's just ridiculously pointless. In fact towards the end of the good-bad-worse commute on HOV to work in crystal city i would go 5 miles or so out of my way to hop onto the toll-road to avoid the fiasco that is the 495 wall where hardly 1 lane of hov traffic can move because of the ramps at 495 and the extended backups from the other 4 to 3 to just 2 lane disaster at the westmoreland/rt29 exit. Going OUT of my way would cut more than 15 minutes off. I don't attribute it to hybrids, but just more people. Anyhow i've got a much shorter commute now, so if anyone wants to buy a slightly used hybrid let me know, my worst gas budget is still less than my car payment ;) and since my wife isn't working anymore, it's time to say goodbye =)P

http://www.4g64.com/gallery/prius

This is an interesting discussion. Hybrids are not cleaner than many non-hybrid cars for one. It would take more than ten years to save enough gas to make up for the huge difference in vehicle cost between a hybrid and a similar non-hybrid.