Electric drivers, mark the date because on the next October 1, California will take away one of your favorite benefits: you will not be able to use the high-occupancy vehicle fast lane. It does not matter if you drive a hybrid or an electric car, if there are not at least three people inside the vehicle, that lane is not for you. This is the fall of the Clean Air Vehicle (CAV) decal program, and now these drivers will have to suffer again the endless lines in the heaviest traffic in the country.
But watch out, it is not Sacramento, but Washington. The Trump administration did not renew the federal extension that gave legal coverage to these programs throughout the country. So the result is this, none of the green or purple decals will remain valid and whoever tries to sneak into the express lane risks immediate fines!!
What the CAV program meant
The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) launched this sticker system in 2019 as an incentive for those who were encouraged to make the jump to a hybrid or an electric. The idea was that, in exchange for polluting less, the driver obtained access to lanes originally intended for shared cars. In cities like Los Angeles or San José, where an hour of traffic jam is routine, that advantage made the difference for many of us.
In recent years more than a million stickers were distributed, and it was one of the best incentives if you were going to change cars… A hybrid car but one hour less on the way to work? Give me one right away!
Why is it ending
Basically because Section 166 of Title 23 of the U.S. Code, the legal basis that allowed states to maintain this type of privilege, was not renewed. California tried to save it with law AB 2678, but without federal support it came to nothing.
So California and thirteen other states that had similar programs are also forced to cancel them.
For drivers…
The effects will be felt immediately. Thousands of people who previously crossed cities through the fast lane will now mix with the rest of the traffic. Governor Gavin Newsom already named the situation the “Trump traffic jam”: more cars, more delays and, in turn, more pollution…
And for the environment?
The biggest risk is not only the traffic jam, but the fall in sales of electric and hybrid cars. Today, one out of every four new cars sold in California is zero emissions, and there are studies showing that it is precisely because of this incentive. Now, if there are no improvements by switching to electric, many will prefer the smell of diesel.
And remember we are talking about California, where there are five of the ten cities with the worst air quality. Air pollution remains a pretty big problem… So now that progress had been made in improving the air, we will see again people with more respiratory diseases and risk of suffering lung cancer.
More than a cut, a political battle
As always, it is another fight between the White House and California. Newsom believes that the central government is causing more problems instead of improving the programs that exist… And the DMV itself regrets this situation because users really saved a lot of time in traffic jams…
And now what
We have to prepare our wallets and patience, we will have to suffer more traffic and more emissions again. It is still not known if the program will return or if there will be some similar incentive for those who choose low emissions, but what is clear is this change could become a serious setback in the climate fight.