Vanity Plates/Tags

Would everyone please get back on topic!!!! There are already dicussions concerning this issue...please join them and stay there. Your opinions are interesting and I'd like to read them... but not here. Thank you!

Stuck - You have repeated this line or reasoning at least twice now. If you pick up Slugs then none of this applies to you. So, keep picking up Slugs!

Well, you're right--I have a problem with motorcycles taking up space on the HOV and not having 3 or more people on their vehicle just as much as hybrids. So, you're right--they are just as bad.

I am only a slug-driver, so I have never ridden with a hybrid vehicle...but even if I DID slug, I have nothing against hybrids, or their drivers, as long as they comply and have three people, just like every other car out there...so I most certainly WOULD get into a hybrid (or other CF) vehicle in a slug (or other carpool) line.

As far as military people go..I think they are wonderful and I'm glad that they are defending our country...this was NOT a slam against military families. But neither should anyone go and think that because of where one lives (be it a military base or any other home) gives them the right to take a job far away and then complain that because of that, they should be allowed to violate the VDOT rules for which the HOV lanes were created!

Mike (610-SLUG)

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Originally posted by Stuck2
[br]No, 610-slug, I think you got it wrong and are being very judgmental of others. You don't say anything about motocycles (yes, they take up space and like to drive down the center line and create their own set of issues) or off-duty police men (who think THEY are better the rest of us just because they CHOOSE to become policemen. They violate more laws: they speed, they tailgate). The Virginia Lawmakers gave Hybrid owners the HOV exemption -- so, no, hybrids are not violating HOV. When the exemption is taken away, we will comply and either violate HOV or choose to carpool.

I think YOU need to write some letters and focus your frustrations about the overall increased traffic congestion appropriately. By the way, when I'm on the lanes I do have at least 1-3 others (not always slugs, but when I'm able I stop by the lines). I have found the people who slug to be pleasant, and I bet if you are offered a ride by a hybrid owner, you won't turn your nose up in the air. Or will you? Will you wait for the next ride?

Don't ever slam military families. They put up with enough grief and hardship. And they belong and contribute to whatever community they set down in -- even for the short period of time they are allowed to stay.

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Look--sorry that you're stuck living on a military base instead of getting a house near the Dulles airport, or that you can't seem to find a job in the I-95 corridor. However, this is NO excuse for breaking Virginia Department of Transportation law and driving a GASOLINE car (even if it uses SOME battery power at SLOW speeds and LOW gears) taking up the same amount of space on the road as a car that holds THREE or more people.

I am a STRICT advocate that there is NO EXCUSE to drive alone in the HOV-lanes. I don't care what kind of car you're driving or how high a toll or fee you're willing to pay. If you're not a part of the solution, you're part of the problem. You are taking up room on the HOV instead of sitting in the traffic of the regular lanes where you belong. Again--HOV lanes have ONE (not two or three) purpose--to alliviate traffic for those who are willing to share their rides. If you feel that because you paid some amount of money in purchasing a GASOLINE-hybrid vehicle (which is NOT CLEAN FUEL) that you can clog up _OUR_ road, then you are sorely mistaken. Either start a carpool, a vanpool, pick up slugs, or get a job closer to home.

Otherwise, I wish you well and hope that your military career (or that of your spouse) takes you away from this area where people won't deem you selfish and rude for STEALING space on _OUR_ roads just because you have a certain TYPE of car.

Not only should the HOV times be extended to 10am in the morning, and through 7:30pm in the afternoon, but they should be made HOV-4 and there needs to be a MUCH higher enforcement of these laws. At least the fines and DMV points will double starting tomorrow (July 1, 2004), and hopefully that will get some of the violators off of the road.

At least those violators are "honest" about their cheating...as opposed to CF vehicles that believe that they are better than everyone else and therefore don't have to follow the rules that VDOT set up when it constructed the lanes...before the Congress decided to step in because of all of the money that the automakers gave them when they lobbied for the exemption. Some nerve!

Hope you and your Hybrid-denfending pals get transferred somewhere else soon! I assure you that all of the slugs that see Hybrids on the road curse at them everytime...honking and cursing that they should get over in the regular lanes where they belong. If hybrid drivers TRUELY feel that they are being ecological and saving the planet, that's great...more power to 'em...but they should find 2 (or more) additional riders to go with them, or else stay off the HOV! PERIOD. I see no exceptions...unless there is a medical or police emergency, they can sit in trafic or get a new job or new house near where they work. End of story. Ask any non-hybrid driver in the DC area, and they all seem to agree...I don't think I'm being harsh by thinking that people should follow the LAW as it was intended, not push Congress to allow them to break it, and nullify the ONLY reason that the roads were built in the first place.

--Mike (610-SLUG)

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Originally posted by ScarletLSG
[br]Thanks Geezehead.

I ABSOLUTELY agree that a Hybrid owner that is driving from close to ANY slug lot to the Pentagon or DC SHOULD pick up slugs. It is good for the environment AND reduces traffic. I actually do, about once per week.

Funny story ... my oldest daughter is seen by docs at Walter Reed about once a month. Generally, my husband takes her ... drives a regular ole non-Hybrid car. Hubby tried to convince her that it was safe to pick up a slug at Potomac Mills, but being 12, she was just wary of the whole "stranger" thing. It's a fine line to walk -- strangers are dangerous ... unless they are slugs!! End result, he ends up taking youngest daughter. She whines INCESSANTLY ... "Why do **I** always have to be the slug?" Of course that whining subsided when she realized it was a ticket out of a half day of school.

ScarletLSG

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I have to agree with 610-Slug, he is absolutely right (HOV lanes on I-95 was created to alleviate congestion; if they were created for conservation, then why would they allow those stinky, smelly Metro buses to still operate? Okay, maybe there a FEW "clean fuel" buses, but I see them few and far between). Anyway, 610-Slug has saved me countless times by picking me up in the mornings and the afternoons and I truly appreciate it. I will always be a willing slug to 610-Slug. BTW, I own a nice, big SUV and my husband owns a BIG 4X4 V8 pickup truck; and when I'm stuck in traffic, I set my temperature control to just the right temperature and crack up my XM radio. We will give up our gas-guzzling vehicles when they pry it from our cold hands!