Taking Action - Hybrid Drivers off HOV
Printed From: Slug-Lines.com
Category: Archived Slugging Topics
Forum Name: Hybrids
Forum Description: This area is devoted to the discussion of hybrid vehicles and their impact to the HOV.
URL: http://www.slug-lines.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2732
Printed Date: 24 Apr 2024 at 9:40am
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Topic: Taking Action - Hybrid Drivers off HOV
Posted By: countrybound
Subject: Taking Action - Hybrid Drivers off HOV
Date Posted: 11 May 2006 at 3:36pm
I am one who never thought they would extend the time allowing Hybrid drivers on the HOV therefore I sat back and did nothing. We need to all pull together and try to do something. There will come a time when the Hybrid drivers may need slugs to get on the HOV and I for one plan on not riding with them. If they cannot itleast try to help us out when we are all standing in these long lines then I cannot say I will have any sympathy for them.
Lets come up with some ideas [:)]
Debi
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Replies:
Posted By: NoSUV
Date Posted: 11 May 2006 at 7:02pm
Debi - with the average speed of the express lanes being WAY above the posted speed limit, congestion still being a major problem in the regular lanes, and the price of gas being high, it is unlikely that the majority of people excluding slugs agree with your sentiments.
On the other hand, how many hybrids do you see parked in the commuter lots?
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Posted By: tangelo53
Date Posted: 19 May 2006 at 1:32pm
NoSUV- it is amazing to me the way you talk about Hybrids and how you bash the SUVs!! If you were a true "treehugger" like you claim, you would be out there picking up slugs in your Hybrid, instead on riding solo. Isn't the whole point of HOV to get cars off the road and promote carpooling? HOV stands for HIGH OCCUPANCY VEHICLES....now, how is allowing a solo Hybrid on HOV helping matters? I am not against Hybrids at all, it just drives me crazy to hear some of you Hybrid drivers rant about how you are so "pro-Earth"...oh please. You KNOW you only bought that Hybrid so you can go on HOV.
Also- I have an SUV, so I guess I suck, huh? While you are driving solo on HOV, I am putting up my 3rd row seating to pile in as many slugs as I can fit to get them up 95. ---so, who is Mr. Green Earth now??!!
Sorry for the rant....but this crap was just getting old! It has been stated numerous times on this website that noone really dislikes the Hybrids...it is just the fact that it makes no sense to have solo drivers in HOV. why call it HOV? Maybe it should be called EFL (Earth Friendly Lanes). [V]
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Posted By: NoSUV
Date Posted: 22 May 2006 at 7:21am
tangelo - try listening to WTOP during your afternoon commute and notice how Bob M refers to the lanes as "express" not HOV. Have you notice how there are less on and off ramps on those reversible lanes? HOV came about after the lanes were built. Originally, they were for express traffic. The concept was that local traffic would be in the regular lanes, and the long haul in the express lanes.
Have you noticed that there is an exemption for motorcycles? Ever wonder what the reasoning behind that is?
Do you refuse to drive your SUV except when on the express lanes to to you travel to/from slug lines in it solo? Ever use that SUV to run errands?
You are way off the mark if you think your gas guzzling SUV makes you Green.
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Posted By: sluDgE
Date Posted: 22 May 2006 at 7:48am
NoSUV & tangelo53,
I'm fairly sure the original reversible lanes were for express Metro buses, and not express cars. Later changes in the law alllowed HOV cars and now SOV hybrids. (And for the record I don't own either a hybrid or a SUV -- just two 4-door sedans. I'm all in favor of people, regardless of what they drive, just obeying the law.
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Posted By: tangelo53
Date Posted: 22 May 2006 at 10:33am
Are you really serious? I don't care what the radio personalities call the lanes. That is really a ridiculous comment. It is HOV lanes period. I wonder what Howard Stern would call these lanes??
If motorcycles could take 3 people, then I think they should as well, but seeing that they don't have a backseat....that is a little difficult. Hybrids, on the otherhand, have a backseat so there is no excuse. I never claimed to be green. I was just saying that by loading down my SUV with 8 people, that is 7 less cars off the road....MUCH BETTER than a solo Hybrid travelling down 95.
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Posted By: NoSUV
Date Posted: 22 May 2006 at 12:31pm
tang - the key on the name of the road is that it can and has changed based on the usage. It won't be long before the lanes will be called toll lanes. Quite a progression: express - HOV - toll.
By the way, for how many hours are those lanes HOV? less than half? Do we name ALL things by the minority title? Or just the ones you have an interest in?
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Posted By: Bob
Date Posted: 22 May 2006 at 1:36pm
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And when they turn toll (or sooner), that will be the end of the hybrid exemption, but free slugging will go on. As John McLoughlin says.. Bye- bye!
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Posted By: NoSUV
Date Posted: 22 May 2006 at 1:48pm
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Bob - weren't you also the one who preached that the hybrid exemption would end once and for all in June '06? Hybrids will most likely be as free as slugs. Just ask the Sponge!
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Posted By: SpongeBob
Date Posted: 23 May 2006 at 2:00pm
Hey, did someone say my name?
I don't remember Bob saying one way or the other about the end of the exemption. Certainly he wouldn't have "preached". Out of character. "Mused", perhaps.
Free, though? Free?!?
Not damn likely.
Two things matter:
1. No way to distinguish number of vehicle occupants, therefore no way to provide free access to +3 passenger vehicles.
2. The toll road owner (not you or me or any citizen who actually PAID for the damn road) has a powerful incentive to reduce HOV usage, especially free usage, because it interferes with his paying customers.
This last point was publicly admitted to by an official in the Washington Post in 2004. That article started Bob and SpongeBob too on the public warpath. We are still looking for a copy of the article, BTW, because we can't recall the name of the clown who said it.
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Posted By: dbeadner
Date Posted: 12 Jul 2006 at 9:22am
NoSUV
Regarding your motorcycle question, I think you really need to compute something I call "People-Miles-Per-Gallon" in order to normalize all vehicles and compare them. I dont ride now, but used to, and my cycle got 55 MPG, so that would be 55 People-MPG. On the other hand I carpool now and carry 4 in my Honda Accord which gets 25 MPG worst...so thats 100 People MPG. Using a metric like that, the cycle is going to be better than most, if not all Hybrids, and better than an SUV carrying 3 people.
Thats why I believe cycles are included. They are fuel efficient in comparison to most other modes.
quote:
Originally posted by NoSUV
[br]tangelo - try listening to WTOP during your afternoon commute and notice how Bob M refers to the lanes as "express" not HOV. Have you notice how there are less on and off ramps on those reversible lanes? HOV came about after the lanes were built. Originally, they were for express traffic. The concept was that local traffic would be in the regular lanes, and the long haul in the express lanes.
Have you noticed that there is an exemption for motorcycles? Ever wonder what the reasoning behind that is?
Do you refuse to drive your SUV except when on the express lanes to to you travel to/from slug lines in it solo? Ever use that SUV to run errands?
You are way off the mark if you think your gas guzzling SUV makes you Green.
DB
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